The Sprites of Enchanter's Hill
by Andaliri
Summary: The world Fa'Diel knew one Sprite: Faustis the Fortunate. But what of Farryn the Wanderer, his twin sister, the real heroine hiding behind her brother? When she is taken to be Handmaiden to the Dark Goddess, will Faustis, with the help of the Jumi, win?
1. Prologue

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**Prologue**

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_The silent wind rustled the leaves among the great hidden tree wherein the Goddess of the __land__ of __Fa'Diel__ dwelt in anger and sorrow. The vast trunk reached far beyond what anyone could see, touching the heavens itself. Enormous leaves covered each immense branch, each leaf large enough to house several cities. Blossoms lovelier than any other flowers found in the land bloomed, each one as perfect as the Goddess Herself._

_But the Goddess saw none of the beauty. All She saw was the errors, the flaws. She scowled at the single bead of water in Her perfect palm. This dewdrop was more special than any could realize, for it showed Her the world outside her abode. She glared at what She saw in this wondrous drop of water._

_"Lifelings__," She hissed, the venom in Her voice so strong that it was almost tangible. "May the Mana be your downfall__.__" She laughed softly, Her voice so melodious that even the purest siren would sound like an old crow compared to Hers._

_Now there was an idea. Mana. That which those pathetic Lifelings so long coveted and manipulated to their own evil ends would be the cause of their destruction. But how to do it?_

_Lounging in Her magnificent leafy throne, the Goddess thought deeply. It would have to be a gradual intervention, for if the fools actually noticed a mobilization of the Dead, they would be sure to raise armies of their own. Yet the thrust would have to be quick and lethal, but in effect: lingering. Delicious. Quick so that they would be too stunned to regroup and lethal so that it would be the end of them. There would be vices rising in every direction to plague each mind that lived._

_Yes. The plan was beginning to form in the Mana Goddess's corrupted mind. She would have to take time, but time meant nothing to one who lives forever. And to make it complete, the initial attack would come from one of their own. The killing blow. Surprise was elemental._

_She rose from Her throne and strode to the Room of All. _

_The Room of All was a vast cavern in the hollow trunk of the Great Tree. There was no need for light, for the Her eyes saw all with great clarity and in several places, light from the living world filtered in. There were many holes in the cavern, and each one displayed something different within the column of light emanating from the hole._

_At the ceiling of the cavern were the brilliant burning stars, a strange thing to see in the middle of a tree. More than millions of them sped by, each following the course laid out to them by the universe. Distance meant nothing in this phenomenal tree. The entire universe spun in the ceiling of the Room of All._

_The Room of All was in the Tree of Life long before She came into existence. There was much that She knew, but there was also many that She did not. When She first laid eyes on the room, there was light, yet nothing to see within the columns. She had been such a fool…so eager to fill it up with Life and Mana._

_A mistake._

_She looked up and called to one of the Stars. The Star of the Beginning. It was a star She had grown to hate, as much as She was fond of those burning balls of Mana. Stars were silent observers, disinterested in life. She admired them for their indifference. Yet this star had everything to do with life and evoked even more pain than the Star of the End._

_As a younger Goddess, back when the light was empty, She had loved the Star more than She thought possible, spending every eternal moment with it as She began to populate the barren land of the world Fa'Diel. She had no idea of who put the land there, perhaps it was there all along, or perhaps it formed the way She did._

_Soon, Her creations through love became wearying and hateful as they discovered weapons and means of attacking other Lifelings. They had begun their self-annihilation, destroying Lifelings who were, in their eyes, of lesser importance and of no great consequence. In almost no time, battles were fought between clans and territorial masters. More of Her creations died._

_Her love for Her creations began to dwindle as time went on, as time always will. She saw that all that She created for love only brought pain and suffering. Creation brought life, one of the most precious gifts, but the life was brought into a world of anguish and the gift of Life forgotten amidst vices of all sorts._

_It was something that She could not continue to do._

_Slowly, she withdrew from Life and returned to the Tree to find that more columns of light had grown in the cavern and each contained windows to Life. She cast the Star of Beginning far into the ends of the universe, but it seemed that the Star would continue living, continue making more life on its own, making new creatures, which lived only to begin dying as they emerged from their mother's womb.._

_She grew to hate it as with each passing second, a new life was created and carried into a torturous world._

_This time, though, it would be different. She would love the single Lifeling as the Mother She always was that She would draw from the star and spare it from the extermination of the rest, taking it into Her care. She and this individual would be thus until the end of time and beyond, free from the pain of life._

_This Lifeling would be her tool. Her masterful weapon against the fools who invented weapons only to slaughter each other for selfish and pointless needs. And it would be one of them, indeed. There would speak of the betrayal so prominent in the stories Men wrote to entertain themselves. Yet never had they felt the true feeling of betrayal._

_So in a ritual She had almost forgotten how to perform, She took the Star in Her divine hands and closed Her eyes. She began to set the course of history which would lead to the birth of Life's death. Certain events would have to occur prior to that in order to shape the world into one which Her tool would grow to hate, as did She._

_All She would have to do now was wait._

_Time passed by, Time which She spent all Her time tending to history. She shaped events as a master clay potter would turn a clod of dirt into a masterpiece. The Star of the Beginning watched silently, unknown to the Goddess that it had also tampered with the events. Yet as time passed by, She began to see something wrong. Something She had missed._

_It all lay in the events around the special seed She had planted. She had underestimated the foolish woman who was to bear the child. The idiot Lifeling had turned the other from his murdering ways. Then they had gone off and lived their lives in seclusion, casting spells that would isolate them from the world. There, they raised a Tree with their magic and caused it to be as a house, thus there they lived the rest of their days. _

_How could it be possible? How could the woman Lifeling have done something so momentous? To turn a killer from his ways? The dark Goddess scowled and turned to another column of light. _

_There…She saw it now. What a fool She had been to overlook so small yet so important things! How could She have ignored this? Berating Herself, She turned back to the light of the present and watched._

_No…everything had gone completely wrong!_

_It appeared that the Star of the Beginning had meddled in Her plans. The star was the one which had nudged the events to thwart Her! Enraged, She turned upon the star when suddenly, behind Her came the sound of Birth._

_Eagerly, She turned back to the light, deciding that She would deal with the star later, and peered in. There were the Lifelings and their silly pot of enchanted dirt. They had done something to the seed within, though what it was, She did not know._

_Another reason to obliterate the Star of the Beginning._

_There was a cry; the child was born! And the Goddess smiled, Her immaculate beauty marred by the evil look in Her colorless eyes. She watched as the Lifeling father took the child in his once blood-stained hands and named the child in the ceremony of birth. The Goddess exulted as She heard the name._

_Everything was going according to plan._

_All of a sudden, there was another cry. What was this? Another baby??? And to Her horror, She watched as another child entered the stream of Life, not shedding a single tear. Its eyes were solemn as it gazed at its once barbaric father._

_Two offspring? How could this be? _

_She cast a quick glance at the star She had scorned. It was glowing brighter than usual. Uttering an inhuman roar of fury, She cast destructing Mana at it. Yet, as it always had, Her fire merely disappeared into its flaming abyss. She scowled angrily at it and pointedly ignored it as She turned back to contemplating the course of actions._

_She peered at the new Lifelings. There was something strange about each of them. Something about their Auras that hummed differently from the rest…there was a new sound to them, a diverse shade hanging around the edges._

_Once these thoughts circulated through Her immense mind, the Goddess knew that they were special. True, they were already extraordinary, for the Goddess had labored for so long to bring them to life (granted, She only expected one), but they were made more unique  because of their peculiar breed:_

_They were Sprites._

_They would be able to do Her bidding, She decided, and granted them abilities far more complex and superior to the likes of other mortal Lifelings. Even some which were more enhanced than that of immortal Lifelings._

_Yet as Time went on on its stately pace, the Sprite children were taught that Life was precious and they should strive to maintain it. That would not do. Furious that the Star of Beginning would go as far as to erase the sire's hatred toward all Life, She punished them by sending the mother a sickness which would eventually ebb away her life as each day passed. Stricken by the mother's death, the sire which had once been the scourge of Fa'Diel fell upon his sword, leaving the two children behind. _

_But the twins steadfastly refused to change and even set out to break the spells which hid the rest of the world from them. _

_She had been waiting for the moment when they would have the urge to wander. Although they weren't the Life-haters their father was, She realized that all She needed to do was show them the world and how horrible Life really was._

_Unfortunately, what She hadn't expected was the mother's meddling urge to breed into them. Thus, they spread through the known world and righted wrongs. She threw as many obstacles as She could in their way, but Her gifts to them enabled them to conquer each and emerge triumphant._

_Somehow, She had a sneaking suspicion that the Star had input the officious strain into their blood. It was a sure way for them not to be overlooked when the Goddess would take them from the world. They had become famous for helping out justice._

_But there was something that the Star hadn't counted on, an immediate advantage for the Goddess. One of them was unsure and disliked crowds, thus had given its share of fame to the other. The world knew not of the twin, just the adventurer who seemed to be everywhere at the same time, saving lost Guardians or simply helping out two lovers._

_She could take one away and no one would know the difference. The Star silently objected to Her, trying in vain to stop Her from Her diabolical plot. But nothing could deter Her now._

_She would win, no matter what._


	2. The Mailbox

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Chapter 1:

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"…And that's how I saved the day!" Faustis finished with great flourish, leaning back in his chair, grinning. His amethyst eyes were dancing and his cornucopia hat was draped rather jauntily on the side of his head. His flaxen hair was in disarray.

After a short pause, Bud, the violet-haired mage boy, snorted and said, "Right. Well, I think you just got lucky. Knowing you, how could it be possible for you to do that?"

Faustis looked offended. "You don't have to be so insulting," he complained in an injured tone.

Rolling her lilac eyes, Farryn sighed and shoved back a tendril of golden hair. "All right, Faus." She looked at him irritably. "Spill it. What _really happened?"_

Faustis echoed his twin sister's sigh. "Fine."

She, her twin brother, Faustis, and two young aspiring sorcerers named Bud and Lisa were at their home, a house in a tree. It was a lovely area where the twins had grown up. Their parents were both gone but they had made sure that their children would live comfortably. There was a structure to the west where several workshops were located and a monster corral to the east. There was a charming orchard just south of the house where they had their very own Mana Tree. The place was just a few miles past Domina, a rural town with pleasant people and an even pleasanter scenery. 

Faustis had just come back from another one of his quests, and as usual, the narrative he told them of it was a lot more outrageous than how it really happened. Sometimes, he couldn't help embellishing the stories a little.

Or a lot.

In any case, his anecdotes were always amusing, so they never minded much.

They were all gathered around the dining table, finishing their dinner as Faustis gave in and told them the real story of what had really happened. It was a lot more prosaic than the yarn Faustis had spun for them.

"I've always suspected that this would eventually happen," Farryn mused, playing with her spoon. "It never seemed permanent enough."

Faustis shrugged and said philosophically, "That's the way the popo bug crumbles. Although I really don't like them." 

Farryn laughed.

Suddenly, there was a soft rhythmic tapping on the leaves outside. Lisa, Bud's older sister, got up and looked out the window and announced that it was raining. She turned to look at Farryn. "D'you think that there's a Jumi out there crying?"

She laughed softly. "It's not very likely, Lisa. It's more possible that this is just a light drizzle from the north. The Jumi are probably sleeping at the moment. And it looks like you should, too."

"Farryn!" Bud and Lisa wailed in protest.

The Sprite gave them a stern look. Since the two of them were rather familiar with that look, they hurriedly excused themselves from the table and dashed to their rooms, although not without any complaints. 

Farryn grinned at her brother, who suddenly looked pensive. She wondered briefly what he was worried about then decided to check on the monsters. She stood up and grabbed her cloak. When she invited Faustis to come along with her, he said, "They've been through _your little rainstorm. A little shower can hardly hurt them."_

Nevertheless, he followed her out the door, though he didn't bother to get his cloak to protect himself from the rain.

It was an annoying habit of his which he continued to express just to vex her. He never wore anything to protect himself from the elements, due to his complete disregard for the weather. What irked her more was that he never got sick from any sort of storm, except for her little typhoon when she was turned into stone. Luckily, he was in Geo at that time and busy trying to cope with his fever, so he wasn't around to meet Elazul and Pearl when they had gone to the house to tell Bud and Lisa of what had happened to Farryn.

Actually, to Faustis. 

It's a little complicated, but nobody knew who Farryn was, although she went on as much quests as Faustis did. Maybe more. It all started when they had finally broken through the spell their parents had placed upon their house with the help of the Colorblocks the Sproutling on their doorsteps had given them. They soon found Domina and eagerly traveled there in hopes of finally meeting new people.

They HAD met new people, and Faustis had gone with the Jumi knight Elazul while Farryn helped the merchant Niccolo out. But Farryn was disconcerted when she met Niccolo (too overwhelmed with the sights and sounds), so when Niccolo asked her name, she said that she was Faustis.

That had started everything, because the rabbit stubbornly wouldn't admit that he believed her and therefore continued to call him Faustis. Niccolo wanted to make sure that no one ever knew that he had been made a fool of (even though that she hadn't done it intentionally), so he told everyone he met that she was a he named Faustis.

Farryn saw no particular need to care much about it and she didn't really like the idea of fame so she just surrendered all her reputation to her brother, who completely soaked all the praise up. His reputation grew more and more each time they set foot out of their house. Many ignored the fact that he was a liar and that he enjoyed gambling a little too much (and often cheated, too), since they were usually so grateful. And since he was quite striking, ladies continually fell over his feet.

Perhaps that was why he was always so clumsy.

Farryn was attractive as well, but she stayed away from places where there were many people unless she was required to go to help an unfortunate. She just enjoyed helping people and having more chances to hone her fighting skills, something which Faustis never really did. Yes, he was a good warrior, but he relied more on luck than on skill on his adventures, unlike Farryn, who was an excellent combatant, thanks to hours of training.

"Hey, do you know where those Sproutlings went?" Faustis broke into her thoughts. She snapped her head up and realized that she was just standing there and staring at her brother.

She turned to look for them but couldn't see any sign of the strange walking plants. She shrugged and said, "Maybe they're hiding from the rain."

"But plants _like rain."_

"Don't turn to me for all the answers."

"But aren't you the one who spends all her time holed up in the old graveyard?"

She sighed. "It's not a graveyard, Faus," she told him patiently. They had this argument quite frequently among several others. "Just because it's quiet there doesn't mean that it's a place where people store their rotting dead. It's a library."

Faustis stared back at her blankly. "And?"

"Never mind." For some reason, Farryn wasn't in the mood to spar with her brother today.

They continued up the path to the monster corral. She glanced at Faustis and saw that he was staring at the sky broodingly. He looked unusually serious, for a change. He didn't even take notice of his dripping hat. 

"What's on your mind, Faus?" she asked curiously. Something had to be rather significant in order to shove his cheerful mood away. She hoped it was a philosophical question, because, for all his frivolous activities, he was extremely intelligent. His theories were often profound and mind-boggling and fun to counteract with some of her own.

He looked back at her, startled. "What? Oh, uh…I was just thinking about the time when you saved the entire Jumi race, that's all."

She could see that he was holding something back. "C'mon, Faus," she prodded. "There's more, isn't there?"

He sighed and nodded. "I forget how easily you see through me. Well…was it horrible to be locked in stone? If Florina and the others hadn't decided to make a Teardrop Crystal, that would've been the end for you. It should've been me back there. You don't deserve that."

Farryn was taken aback by his solemnity. He was usually the one full of smiles and laughter while she stayed silent and contemplative. It was strange. She decided to play his role.

"It _was you, remember?" She grinned cheekily at him. "It was Faustis who defeated the Jewel Master. It was Faustis who cried for the Jumi and it was Faustis who got turned into stone, so don't you forget!"_

He gave her an exasperated look. "Don't be pert. It seems wrong for things to be that way. It isn't fair to you."

"Morality, Faus?" She feigned an expression of astonishment. "From you?"

"It is a little out of place, isn't it?" he admitted. "But still. Call it guilt if you like. It just feels wrong for you to hand over all your hard-earned fame to me."

She shook her head. "I never wanted it, so it's nothing off my back. It just came to me."

"But it's still yours," he said stubbornly. "You deserve to have it. You're the better warrior, 'Rin. My luck just loves me, that's all."

Seeing Farryn about to protest, he held up a hand and stopped her. "I'm not stupid, 'Rin. I can see that the only reason I have such a reputation is because of you. I mean, really, who cares about Gilbert's love life or whether or not some penguins want treasure? I'm supposed to be some fantastic warrior with strange powers who seems to change from being masculine to feminine. But I really am just some Sprite warrior who gets lucky now and then."

She stopped and stared at her brother. Faustis was dripping wet but he hardly noticed it. What had happened to him? He was usually such an outrageous braggart with the largest ego that this was a huge confession from him.

"What's wrong?" she demanded. "Tell me what happened to you."

Faustis shook his head, spraying water, but he didn't take note of it. He looked miserable. "Nothing, Farryn." He reached out and took her hand. "It's just that I almost lost you back there. How can I live without my sister?" He smiled faintly. "How can I take credit for such a momentous experience for you? I could never do that. You nearly lost your life."

She shook her head vigorously, resuming her walk. Faustis followed silently. "No," Farryn glanced at him. "Don't you remember that we almost always are in the risk of losing our lives whenever we travel? Whether it be a fight against the dragon Akravator or, as ridiculous as it sounds, a chance battle with a Chocobo on Luon Highway, we don't run away from the battle. We fight and we win, but risk everything all the same. It's something that we can't resist doing.

"Anyway," she continued. "I knew that whatever would happen in that room, Elazul and the others would do anything to save me." She paused. "Or you, for that matter. That is, after you healed up at Geo. Besides, why is it that you never hesitated to take credit for everything else? I'm sure that if you found a probable reason, you would take credit for making the sun rise."

He smiled contemplatively. "Say now…wouldn't that be an amazing feat?" he murmured. He looked back at her. "I guess I'm just proud of you, 'Rin. You saved the entire Jumi race and defeated that evil Jewel Master. I feel brotherly pride for my twin and think that YOU deserve to be credited for it, not me. I wouldn't have probably bee able to save them if I had gone to Etansel instead of you."

"Being the lying cheating scoundrel you are," Farryn quipped, thinking the conversation had taken a turn for the worse and hoped to goad him into cheerfulness. 

He feigned an injured expression. "You don't have to come down so hard on that," he whined. "And you just had to save the Jumi by _crying. Imagine what that would do to my impeccable reputation! Faustis the Fantastic, crying like a baby!"_

"It was just one tear!"

"So? They'll be talking about it all over Fa'Diel!"

"Well, what else do you think stains your spotless eminence?" she retorted, although she was glad that he was not so moody anymore. "You're a lying cheating rascal! And there's all that dallying you do with other women." She grinned, knowing where the conversation would turn next and eagerly anticipating the thought of mercilessly teasing her brother.

Faustis paused. "I've sort of stopped that, you know," he protested. "Well…the dallying, at least."

"I know."

"No, really, I have—WHAT?" His face grew pale.

Hers, though, took on a sneaky look. If one would compare that expression on her fairy-like face to that of Faustis' when he was busy swindling all the money away from a vendor, one would have found the similarity uncanny and more than a little frightening.

"Yes," Farryn said, trying to bottle in her laughter. "It seemed that your interest in other women's beds faded after that little episode in the Tower of Leires…"

Her grin widened when she saw his face regain its color. A lot of it, actually. In fact, he looked so red that she thought it was unhealthy.

"So…" she continued, enjoying herself, "Tell me, Faus. What exactly happened when you and Pearl went to the Tower of Leires…ALONE? Your story was matter-of-fact enough, but I can tell that you're hiding some _important facts from me. Maybe you forgot these details…on purpose. Or perhaps you decided not to mention it to people who don't know you well, but remember that I'm Farryn, your twin sister who lived with you for seventeen years, and the only other Sprite in Fa'Diel. I should know you pretty well by now."_

"I told you everything," he said tightly, veering ahead.

She easily caught up with him. "I'm sure you are." She snickered. "Not. But could it be that Faustis, the Untouchable yet Well-Loved by the Ladies, has finally fallen in love with a certain Jumi Guardian of the Pearl Order?"

"Oh," he exclaimed. "Hey, speaking of Pearl, when you went to the Tower, was Blackpearl really that evil?" He had genuine curiosity in his tone, but she knew he was just trying to change the subject. Faustis could be _so transparent sometimes._

She shrugged. "Not exactly evil, but not the nicest person in the world, either."

He sighed. She patted his arm. "She's still Pearl, remember?" She grinned impertinently at him. "Don't worry, Faus. Your secret is safe with me." She added as an afterthought, "After all, I'm not you."

"Thank you," was his dry reply. "I'm glad that you think so highly of me. I CAN keep secrets, you know."

She laughed. "But usually, you let them out every now and then to dry. Now, about your little episode with Pearl…"

"We're here!" Faustis practically ran into the monster barn, desperate to escape her. She chuckled and trailed after her fleeing brother into the barn.

She shrugged out of her hooded cloak and hung it on the stand by the door. She turned around to face the barn and took a deep breath. Although it was raining outside, there was still that musty smell wafting through the air. There was a light scattering of hay on the floor where the monsters sometimes played. The lamps hanging from the wall were suspended over bins of water (in case they ever fell).

Farryn loved the monster corral almost as much as she loved the orchard. Both of them, in fact. There was a certain serenity hanging over their heads in the barn that could also be found in the Orchards. The monster smell wasn't really bad (unless you had a pet Zombie. Faustis once did and the Zombie, Rigor, had caused the air to go rancid from the moment he entered the barn. He had to talk fast in order to sell him to the dubious Jennifer because Rigor was agitating the rest of the monsters.).

She glanced over at Faustis. He was trying to pet his Kid Dragon but couldn't even get close enough to touch the tip of his tail due to his thoroughly soaked clothing and Ekard's aversion to water.

She laughed when he tripped and fell face-first into a pile of dragon waste. "Serves you right for not trying to protect yourself from the weather, even if you don't get sick."

He grumbled as he stood up and beamed at her after wiping most of the dirt off his elfin face. "I do that just to annoy you, 'Rin."

She shrugged and bent to fill her Rabite's box with good food. She then fondly stroked the Rabite's pure white fur. "Faus, d'you remember when we first hatched Winter?" she hugged the monster, who was just as happy to burrow her little body into her face.

Faustis nodded, straightening up from petting his Sea Dragon, Naian (who had no qualms against his wetness). "Little Winter's the first monster we ever hatched, so I doubt that I could forget such a momentous experience. Right after she hatched, she jumped out and bit me on the nose," he remarked, rubbing the pert-looking nose he and his sister both had. "She was pretty strong back then, but she's a lot stronger now, when she bother to fight. She's even more powerful than old Talon here."

In response, the said Sky Dragon snapped his jaws menacingly at his owner. Faustis laughed. "Winter's a lot nicer, too. Do you remember when I took her on that quest with me?"

She paused. "Oh, yeah. I was pretty mad at you for a while. Was that the quest where you met that dragoon? He's Sierra's brother, right?"

Faustis nodded and said wistfully, "I wish I could've met her. She sounds pretty cool."

"Don't go after her," she advised, shaking her head. "If you'd try to make any move on her, she'd flash those knives of hers and you'd have to carry your guts home in a bucket."

"I wasn't thinking about meeting her in that way," he protested.

"Oh, yeah," she replied slyly. "After all, there still is _Pearl…"_

"Stop that!"

Laughing, Farryn moved to the next feed box.

When they finished up ensuring the monsters were comfortable at the barn, the twins left and saw that the rain had abated a little. They began the short walk to the Tree House. To their pleasure, they found the rain was not a harassing push to their shoulders anymore. Rather, it became fairly pleasant to walk through.

Farryn remembered well the time when she was in the city of Lumina at these rainy moments. It had just rained over the glowing city when she had gone outside, there were rainbows everywhere. It was so beautiful that it completely took her breath away. The seeming gloominess which hung over Lumina was enhanced, but instead of looking like a dismal city, it looked like something out of a fairy tale.

At that time, she was with Elazul and they were still searching for Pearl. They had spent the night in the inn, worried about the female Jumi Guardian, but when they emerged and saw the surprising beauty of Lumina, their worry eased and their hearts lightened. Because of the enchanting spell of the city, they stayed in Lumina for several more days, seeing the unknown yet phenomenal sights of Lumina until all the rainbows vanished.

That was one of her most cherished memories. There, she got to see the Jumi of the Lapis Lazuli relaxed and having fun. It was quite different from the usual stoic and asinine Elazul she knew. She was fond of the Jumi and understood their ways, something which most people thought cruel and unconcerned with what went on in life. She understood why they chose to hide themselves from the world. She enjoyed going on quests whenever the shy Pearl and the rough Elazul needed her help. 

Faustis' help, actually. She sometimes forgot that they didn't know who she was. There were times when she wanted to be herself, Farryn—Farryn, not Farryn—Faustis. And to think that their deception spread from a rabbit who couldn't bear to be fooled. 

Yet she didn't quite mind. Faustis loved being in the center of attention. She preferred quietly taking her leave as long as the people she helped were fine. That was the way she was. No amount of fame could stamp that out of her nature. She supposed that Faustis had the more outrageous features and a much larger share of the charm and laughter.

But as much as she wanted to tell everyone who she was, she decided that it would complicate things unnecessarily. Besides, most of them probably already forgot who she and Faustis were. She could continue to have her adventures and be free of any worry under Faustis' name.

Yet something in her heart told her that she was destined for things greater than simply being half famous. She had dreams sometimes. Usually on nights when the stars were all out and clear. These dreams frightened her and intrigued her at the same time. They showed her such vast power beyond belief but also showed the use of it, a terrible scourge which would sweep its path through Life and leave nothing behind but chaos.

Along with the dreams came hazy pictures. Usually of stars and peaceful eternity but there were times when she dreamed that she was the cause of the major calamity which would destroy everything she had come to love. There were also nights when she dreamed of mysterious faces she did not recognize. There were many faces, but most often came an impossibly beautiful face of a timeless woman and the grave and handsome face of a shadowy man.

The pictures of destruction scared her but what frightened her more was the feeling she had when she dreamed that she was the one who destroyed all Life. Emanating from those dreams were emotions of triumph as the death of Life. 

_Her triumph._

She couldn't tell anyone about the dreams. Not even Faustis, who was closer to her than her own skin. He knew her better than most people thought possible. The dreams were too serious for him and she felt shame from the emotions, even though they were just dreams.

So she said nothing of the dreams, of the dark fate which awaited her. After all, they were only dreams…

Right?                                              


	3. The Color Blocks

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Chapter 2:

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Free!

Faustis had never felt so alive! He was once more on the move, traversing the dirt roads of Fa'Diel on his lazy pace and enjoying the fact that he was once more traveling around the world.

Smiling, he took in the sights around him. The sky was its unstoppable blue and the grass around him green and bright. The trees dotting the plains were brimming with life. Beside him floated his trusty and dependable Sea Dragon, Vapor. Faustis continued to feel his spirits lift higher and higher. 

He wasn't depressed to begin with but he left the Tree on rather hasty terms. Thinking about it, he shuddered. He wasn't looking forward to coming back home. _Hopefully, Lisa will have forgotten everything by then…_

~~~~~~~~~

"Good morning!" Faustis jumped over the last two steps of the stairway. His Sea Dragon trailed down behind him, mimicking him in jumping over the last two steps and whistling a cheerful greeting.

As usual, it was afternoon when Faustis awoke but no one ever bothered to bring that fact to his attention since his habit was familiar and there was no real harm in it, anyway.

Farryn nodded to him on her way to the study. It was her daily habit to go there after lunchtime. Faustis himself rarely ventured unto that room; studying never really caught his attention; unless he felt like harassing the two crabs in there.

Faustis managed to glimpse her trembling hands before she ducked into the study. His twin sister looked rather pale and there were dark circles around her eyes. It was a sad thing to see on her face. She wasn't as happy-go-lucky as Faustis was but she was beautiful when she laughed. That was why Faustis often strived to make her at least chuckle. Seeing her in this state would sadden anyone greatly. 

He was growing more and more concerned about her. He knew something was wrong. He was no fool; quite the opposite really. Except on occasions when he happened to catch sight of a pretty girl. And even that little foolishness was fading away.

He knew that she was having nightmares by the fact that she was his twin and he could read her exceedingly well. But he also knew because he would hear her cry sometimes at night in her lower bunk bed. She sometimes talked while she slept and none of her words were reassuring. She was afraid.

But with surprising insight and thoughtfulness (for someone like Faustis, at least), he decided not to mention it unless she mentioned it first. Unfortunately, both of them shared a wide streak of intractability so Faustis began to think she would never discuss it with him and attempt to deal with it on her own.

With an inward sigh, Faustis turned to the supper table where Lisa had cooked breakfast for them. Since he habitually woke late whenever he was at home, she earned to set aside some food for him.

"Hi Faustis!" the violet-haired mage chirped happily. "Bud is ouside tending to the Orchard.

"Good morning Lisa," Faustis replied, taking his seat and looking at the food in front of him. Lisa eagerly awaited his reaction. He smiled at her and started to eat, pretending not to see her flushing with pride. "Thanks, Lisa." He flashed her a smile.

Bud, who came in dragging a carton of fruits for the kitchen supply, shook his head in disgust. It was no secret that Lisa harbored a crush of enormous dimensions on the Fortunate Faustis. Or unfortunate, when one thinks about it. With women falling all over him wherever he went, it was no surprise that he was a clumsy fellow, forever blundering into situations which required more than what he possessed.

Lisa was still smiling at him when she did something totally unexpected. She asked him, "Faustis, do you think I'm pretty?"

Now, it takes a lot to stun our hero Faustis into speechlessness because he was usually talking a mile a minute per second, but this was so out of place that it immediately turned him mute. He knew that the little girl crushed on him but decided to brush it off, since, according to Bud, Lisa fell in love at least for times a day back in Geo before they were expelled from the Academy. In that way, Lisa sort of reminded him of Gilbert, the centaur poet.

He coughed, choking on the food. He grasped quickly for a drink of water. Bud snorted.

Faustis finally found his voice with great difficulty. He despised situations concerning matters of the heart, not because he thought they were gross but because he didn't care to know anything about it. He completely hated the time when he helped Gilbert out in selling Monique the Siren's lamps.

Although he *did* enjoy swindling the Dudbears…

"Ah," he began. "Um…" he felt a drop of sweat running down the side of his head. Bud snickered. Faustis shot him a poisonous look and turned back to Lisa. "Well, you certainly are no crone, my little friend."

"Really?" Lisa squealed. "That means you think I'm extremely pretty, right?" Bud stifled a laugh. His face appeared to be turning red.

_'Hang it all, Faus,' said the voice inside his head. __'You got yourself into this situation. I'd like to see how Faustis the Fantastic handles this…'_

Faustis inwardly scowled at the voice, wondering why it sounded so much like Farryn, and cleared his throat, glancing at the Pine O'clock. He exclaimed, "Well, what do you know? It's actually afternoon." He paused. "I wake up *that* late? How come no one's ever told me that before? Odd. Well, anyway, gotta go off now. The life of a famous adventurer, you see."

He abruptly stood up and dashed to get his sword and several other weapons along with his travel gear. Among his travel gear was a beautiful little reed pipe which looked like a flute but was much smaller. Its tone was a lot shriller, too, thanks to the reed alignment. A complete accident.

He had been traveling with Niccolo when he found the strange coins with graphics of stars embedded onto their borders. They had a major argument over who would get to keep the coins, involving weapons and physical damage. Surprisingly, Faustis won thanks to his magnificent luck. He promised to name the instrument he would make out of them after Niccolo though.

So after he created a flute out of the coins, the reeds seemed odd. He decided that it didn't matter, so he named it "the Master Wind Master of the Starry Nebula Piccolo Wind Master" in a fit of excitement. Farryn had whacked him over the head and changed the name to "Star Nebula Piccolo."

Life is so unfair.

He hadn't tried the piccolo out yet though, so he had no idea how strong it could be. 

"Say good-bye to Farryn for me, 'kay?" he yelled over his shoulder as he jogged down the path leading away from his house. Once again, he noticed that there were no Sproutlings taking up house at their steps, and the morning was beautiful.

"What do you mean?" someone called to him. "Faustis! Where are you going?"

It was Farryn. "I'm off on another adventure!" he cried, spinning around and walking backwards. He saw his sister through the window of the study. Her face was drawn and pale as she whispered, "Please…don't go…"

There was fear in her voice. Faustis stopped. "What? I'm going to help the world out, Farryn!"

She looked at him and, if possible, her face grew even paler. She shook her head. "Never mind. Come back quickly, brother." And she reached out and closed the window, pulling the curtains shut.

Faustis paused. There really was something wrong with her… should he stay?

He suddenly caught sight of Lisa running down the path after him. "Faustis!" she shouted. "Where are you going? Can I come along with you?"

He blanched and shouted, "'Bye, Farryn! See ya, Lisa, Bud!" practically running down the path. Could he get away any faster?

~~~~~~~~~

Faustis winced at the thought of his return. He was certain that Farryn would have a few words about that for him, irresponsible being the cleanest. Diffident or not, Farryn had a whole set of curse words she had learned from the inestimable Inspector Boyd.

He surveyed the crossroad signs before him. He could choose to go to Geo or visit Domina. He wasn't quite in the mood for untamed places like the Jungle or Luon Highway. Perhaps he could meet up with Niccolo in Geo. Together, he was certain that they could swindle the entire markets of Geo in a trice. Or maybe he could hop on down to visit the ladies in Domina.

No… the idea had lost its charm on him ever since that episode in the Tower of Leires. With Pearl.

Pearl. The very sound of her name made Faustis' eyes glaze over with dreams. He hadn't noticed that it happened to him until after he returned home from the Tower. Farryn had questioned him about it and had to knock him over the head to get any straight answer out of him.

It seemed that Faustis, the rogue whom all ladies loved, the scoundrel of the market, the best dice manipulator, the large-mouthed braggart, and not to mention the helpful adventurer with a towering reputation was head over heels in love.

What was only slightly more surprising was that it was the shy Jumi guardian of the Pearl order who had won his heart without knowing it. She was pretty, yes, but he had seen more beautiful women, starting with his sister (who was too self-effacing to notice this fact), although she never fawned on him like the others did. In fact, she turned it around, causing him to be her subordinate.

But he wasn't certain if she loved him. Pearl was a gentle soul (when she wasn't Lady Blackpearl) and he had a sinking feeling that she would prefer someone who was less of a rascal like he was. Perhaps it was her innocence and sweet personality that drew him toward her. He had no idea. He hated personal matters. He sighed.

A thudding of hooves on the dirt road alerted him and he spun around, ready to defend himself for the first attack. (Maybe Lisa's random springing attacks *did* help. After all, they seemed to improve his attentiveness and he moved forever alert.)

It was Gilbert, so Faustis put his sword down. Gilbert couldn't harm him. Just tick him off with his endless proclamations of greatness and flattery.

"Oh mighty Faustis!" the centaur cried. "The gallant poet of ardor needs your fathomless brilliance and your ever ready help!!!" He paused. "Why aren't you wearing girl clothes?"

Faustis sighed.

~~~~~~~~~

Faustis was eager to be home after having been gone for a week. He had a strange feeling that he had been away from home for too long, even though he was sometimes away for months. Farryn's odd behavior weighed heavily on his mind. 

But what was strange all throughout his adventures, was that strange feeling he had been getting of danger and fear. He didn't worry at first—he thought that he sensed *his* danger and fear. He had gone through some of that before. But three days ago, he realized that it wasn't *his* danger and fear he had been sensing. It was Farryn's.

At first, he wasn't that worried. Farryn could manage well on her own and usually defeated monsters and evil far easier than he did. He often admired her warrior skills and amazing instincts along with her determination and belief that there was good in everything. The twinges of ungrounded worry just irritated him and he ignored them as he helped his centaur friend out with Monique.

The next day, it grew far worse and he became sick to his stomach as it pounded upon his head like a terrible hangover. This wasn't anything new to him—he'd had monster hangovers before, but what immediately got his attention was the news that armies of strange shadows were making their way south.

Where his home was.

Something was terribly wrong. Sick with anxiety for his twin sister, he traveled through unnatural lightning storms and sudden eclipses with only one thing in his mind: he HAD to get back home.

He reached Domina by nightfall and rented a room in the local inn. As he dressed for sleep, he couldn't help but feel that he should be continuing his traveling, even in this weather. He had done so in the past few days, but now he was at the end of his strength. It was all he could do to turn out the lights.

His sleep was tormented. After a few hours of tossing and turning, he finally drifted off to sleep, and even there, he found no rest from his unease, for ghostly visions of unyielding horror, dread and emptiness hounded him there.

A sudden image appeared to him. It was a long cord of pure light which gave him feelings of tranquility. He took serenity in its presence and slowly, his fear from the previous visions ebbed away as he basked under the innocence of it. He saw blinding white light shimmering at one end of it and a familiar shade of darkness glittered at the other end. Then the white light was suddenly tinged with streaks of black. 

Gradually, the streaks grew larger and larger.

Suddenly, the thread snapped in two and the light of purity coalesced with black threads of evil and Faustis started to scream.

~~~~~~~~~

Elazul jolted up from his sleep. What was that? It was night. He put his fingers to his gleaming blue core and felt the reassuring answering shimmer of Pearl's core in the next room.

He and Pearl had gone to Domina and rented two rooms in the inn run by the Chocobo Miss Yuka. They had left the BejeweledCity of the Jumi on the orders of Diana that the Jumi must know the world affairs which may concern them. They would not make the same mistake of ignorance again. There may come a time when the Jumi must take up arms against an evil common to man, Faerie and Jumi.

So he and Pearl went to Domina in order to learn information, although Geo was a more likely place to gather information because the scholars were always up-to-date with the current events of the world, as well as that of the past. But they had chosen to go to Domina because Esmeralda already held that post and because Pearl had forced Elazul to formally thank Faustis for taking him in and tending to him when his core was scarred.

What Pearl's reasons were, he didn't exactly know, but he was certain that she was rather eager to see the famous traveler. He rather suspected that it was along the lines of an infatuation, so, thinking that it would be rather amusing, he gave in.

And so, there they were, in the local inn, each tucked up in his or her bed in his or her room. Elazul had been lightly sleeping, as he had grown used to doing on the road (you'd never know when a Rabite might come and bite you were you definitely don't want to be bitten) when he heard it.

A scream.

It had immediately jerked him from his hazy dreams of someone mysterious he had been dreaming of for a long time. It had also woken up all the other patrons of the inn. It was loud, certainly, but there was something else.

Reaching deep into himself to search for a way to describe it, Elazul realized (through the delving into his more poetic side ([if he had any]) that it was a wail of unbearable loss. Unending, in continued through the minutes, crying out to the world of the screamer's terror and anguish.

But what caught Elazul's mind was that he thought the screamer sounded very familiar.

Elazul rolled off his bed and hurriedly dressed, running to the connecting door between his and Pearl's room. As he reached it though, it swung open and there was Pearl, as fully dressed as he was and looking doubly worried. 

With a wordless agreement, they raced out of the door and down the stairs in the direction of the scream. They sped past a yawning Miss Yuka and came to a stop at the door where the screamer seemed to come from.

With a glance at Pearl, Elazul knocked the door down easily with a simple blast from his sword's Mana. Pearl rushed in as soon as the splinters stopped smoking and stood stock still as she realized who it was. Elazul followed her and stopped also.

"Faustis?" she whispered, as though not believing what she saw. Then she realized that he was real and he was screaming an incessant inhuman scream. "Faustis!" she cried and immediately went to his bedside.

Faustis' eyes were wide and unseeing as he thrashed about on the bed, his wail continuing all throughout. Pearl tried to hold him still but his thrashing was too rapid for anything else.

"Elazul," she cried.

He nodded and remembered how to move. He moved to the other side of the bed and firmly, he took hold of his friend's shoulders and held him still as Pearl poured a bit of bright blue liquid into a glass of water on the bedside table. Together, they managed to force the liquid down their friend's throat. 

By then, a sizable crowd of people had gathered outside by the ruined doors, watching them. Elazul ignored them and set to watching Faustis intently. His screaming had died away and his eyes began to lower.

An improvement.

He was glad that Pearl took up healing lessons with the Jumi of the Clarius Fluorite, Florina. But on the side, she had also gone to learn about poisons and herbs from the stealthy Sierra, the dragoon of the WhiteForest. He wasn't too pleased with that (she got careless every now and then, and *she* was the one who cooked their food, since he was inept at culinary preparation), but what could he do? Learn how to cook, perhaps?

He stood and looked at the inn's proprietor. "I will pay for the door," he said to Miss Yuka in his quiet voice. "Now leave."

Miss Yuka wouldn't have normally stood for that behavior, he knew, but she was shaken up by the intense feeling in Faustis' scream and aware of the importance of their works. She turned around to the other spectators and ushered them away. She looked back and winked before bustling away.

Elazul nodded his thanks and turned back to where Pearl was tenderly holding the adventurer's hand.

"I wonder what he dreamed about," she murmured, stroking his golden hair.

"He will tell us when he wakes," Elazul replied, sitting down on a chair, resting his sword against the wall. Pearl nodded her agreement and sighed. Elazul then turned his thoughts inward. Faustis' scream sounded familiar to him. He had once heard the same scream when a Jumi Knight had lost his Guardian to whom his core was tied to.

He had always known that Faustis was hiding a secret. The first time he had met Faustis, he had seemed completely awed by the little rural town of Domina and looked like he was searching for someone.

When he met him again, to go to the Tower of Leires to look for Pearl, he was more quiet and quite shy, something he totally was *not* when they found Pearl in the Mekiv Caverns. His clothes were also *very* different and more…appealing. It was odd. Faustis had barely said anything to him then, but when they had first met in the tavern in Domina, it was all Elazul could do to resist pushing him off a high crag, preferably with extremely sharp rocks beneath.

It was like there were two different Faustises.

"Elazul!"Pearl shook him. He sat up straight, a little startled. He had fallen asleep? "Elazul!" Pearl shook him again. "Faustis is awake!"

Elazul got off the chair. Yes, he *had* fallen asleep. There was sunlight streaming through the open window and his back was stiff and ached slightly. Pearl had dark circles around her eyes. Slightly guilty, he realized that she had been up all night, caring for Faustis.

He put a hand on her shoulder and smiled before turning to look at Faustis.

The golden-haired adventurer now wore his clothes which didn't confuse Elazul and was staring out the window as though he needed to go immediately. Faustis turned to Elazul. There was no spark of familiarity in his amethyst gaze. "I must go now."

Elazul nodded. "Of course. But Faustis, I want to know what is wrong."

Faustis' cheery happy-go-lucky attitude was gone, replaced by a steely resolve and seeming emptiness. His manner didn't remind Elazul of the calm and composed warrior he knew, nor of the wild and talkative adventurer he had first met. His solemn eyes met Elazul's blue ones seriously. "Something has happened to her. I know it."

Elazul felt a stab of swift pain in his core. It was from Pearl. So she loved Faustis? Sad. It seemed that he had someone else.

Pearl murmured softly, "Who is she?"

Faustis looked at Pearl for a long time, not answering. His blank eyes didn't even seem to recognize her. Pearl looked back, her green eyes clear and wistful. Elazul felt like a third wheel for a moment, then shrugged that feeling off. It was better than going through emotional problems. At last, Pearl bowed her head. Elazul felt a little mad at Faustis for being so cruel.

Pearl then whispered, "We would like to go with you." She looked up, sadness apparent in her eyes. "Maybe we could help."

Faustis was silent for a few moments, and then he shrugged. "Just don't slow me down."

Elazul, for one brief moment, hated him.

~~~~~~~~~

They had been traveling for hours now. Elazul, Faustis and Pearl had left Domina shortly after they paid for the door Elazul had blasted down. Faustis didn't want to stop for any rest at all. Elazul would've knocked him upside the head if he hadn't noticed the look in his friend's eyes.

It was a look he himself had often worn many times when Pearl wandered off. Only with Faustis, the look seemed to contain more. There were undertones of fear in his voice and a broken look in his eyes. Almost half-dead. Elazul was awed by the intensity of feeling and desperation in those eyes.

Pearl was quiet throughout the entire journey. She looked lost in her thoughts as she walked sedately alongside them. She really did love Faustis, Elazul concluded as he watched her glancing sorrowfully at Faustis every now and then.

Faustis also looked at the Jumi Guardian frequently. The strange lack of recognition in his eyes whenever he looked at his two friends had vanished, although his gaze was usually hard and carefully blank. The observant Elazul noticed the softening of his hard amethyst eyes whenever he did so. Perhaps there was hope for them, after all. If Faustis was a Jumi, at least. It wouldn't be fair to Pearl if her lifespan was longer than his and he would die before she turned around twice.

Soon, they were walking up the path to the Tree where Faustis lived with the two little sorcerers he took as his apprentices. There wasn't a single living thing in sight. But there was something in the air…something felt wrong…

~~~~~~~~~

The minute Faustis saw his home, the feeling of dread (which seemed to ease a little whenever he looked at Pearl) returned twice as strong and urgent. As if to certify that something was wrong, he noticed that the Sproutlings were gone once again and the day was the beautiful type the little Plants loved. He ran ahead of the two Jumi, who seemed to have their hackles up as well. He vaulted up the steps and held the doorknob.

It was unlatched.

Faustis' stomach suddenly plummeted. They *always* kept the door locked. Each of them had their own key. Peering closer, he saw that the knob was broken. The sick feeling in his heart grew worse and he ran inside, hoping to see Farryn appear and tell him that the doorknob broke because of another of Bud's little yet explosively large experiments.

There was no one in the living room. The logs in the fireplace had burned to ashes with no one to tend to them. There was also a foul smell lingering everywhere over the thin layers of dust on everything.

"Farryn?" he called into the house. "Bud? Lisa?"

There was no answer.

He ran to the study and wrenched the door open. It was a mess with books strewn everywhere and pages crumpled up. The chairs were overturned and the desk's drawers were all randomly flung open. 

"Farryn," he whispered. For some reason, he knew that whatever had happened here, it happened to Farryn only. Bud and Lisa would be safe. But where were they?

Like a bolt of lightning, he let the room and took the stairs three at a time and skidded to a stop at the room. Sweeping his gaze around, his fear intensified, shooting through him like spears of ice. 

Everything was a mess. The table was overturned and its contents were flung all over the floor. The wardrobe was lying on its back and cracked horribly. There were red scratches upon it. Faustis realized with horror that it was blood. He looked around wildly. Everywhere, there were red marks. Farryn's blood.

But that was not the only thing which caused him fear. There was a strange dark aura floating from the air and chilling his soul horribly. It seeped into his heart and he let out a cry of terror. Someone very powerful was here and unleashed great amounts of Mana. The sense of it was overwhelming.

Faustis shook off the sense of fear and rushed in, jumping over the items on the floor. There was nobody around. Wait! Behind the table!

"Li'l Cactus!" he cried and leaped over the chair and hurriedly uprighted the table. And there, looking worse for wear, was the little cactus plant. Li'l Cactus looked very weak and sad as he drooped over in his pot.

"What happened?" he asked the plant urgently. "Where are Farryn and the two sorcerers?"

The cactus croaked in reply. Faustis realized that he was probably dehydrated and then he heard footsteps behind him. "What happened in here?" Pearl's voice was startled and afraid.

"Pearl!" Faustis glanced up at her. "Please get a pail of water!" he begged her. He *had* to know what had happened to his sister and why her blood was so liberally smeared through the room. "There's a water pump at the back of the house."

Pearl saw the desperation in his clear eyes and nodded, running past Elazul, who had been looking in the study. Elazul looked around the room in silent dismay. He identified the red streaks as blood immediately and closed his eyes. Whoever had been here must be terribly hurt.

When Pearl returned, Faustis poured the water gingerly into the cactus' pot. At first, nothing seemed to be happening. Soon enough, though, Li'l Cactus began to straighten slowly and spoke.

"Dark came with dead. Dead surrounded mistress and she fought. Lost. Taken away. So much blood…" He lowered his head.

Faustis' throat closed up. "What? How? What do you mean?" His heart pounded painfully with fear for his sister, his twin, his other half. Where was she? She was hurt? "Do you know where she is, Li'l Cactus?"

The cactus spoke again. "Evil voice says they will hurt two children. Bud and Lisa. Mistress gives up. Very weak now. They disappear." The plant looked devastated. "Farryn gone."

A little tear trickled down the plant's face. Faustis gently brushed the tear from his little face. "Don't worry, Li'l Cactus," he said softly. "We'll find her. But do you know where Bud and Lisa are?"

"I don't know," Li'l Cactus whispered. "Scared."

Faustis bowed his head. After a minute, he stood up and gave the plant more water. "Thank you little Cactus." He glanced at the two Jumi warriors. They saw that his face was drawn into a look of pain and unshed tears brimmed in his eyes.

"Will you help me find the two mages?" he asked quietly. His voice sounded nothing like the boisterous tone they were more familiar with.

Pearl and Elazul nodded. "We will help you find them and your friend," Elazul answered. Pearl smiled sadly. Elazul continued, "It is the least we could do to repay the great debt we owe to you for aiding us so many times and saving the Jumi race."

"No," Faustis said, shaking his head. "You do not owe it to me. Not to me. Someone else. But thank you."

They smiled gently at him, yet wondered what he meant.

And so they began to search the house for any hints that the sorcerers might still be there.

As Faustis looked through the rooms and hiding places, he mulled over what Li'l Cactus said. Dead? Did Lil Cactus mean Death figuratively or dead as in zombies and monsters? And what was that evil voice? Could it be that Larc's master had somehow returned from the dead?

Whatever it was, it had taken his sister, and he would get her back, no matter what.

"Faustis!" someone yelled. It was Elazul. Perhaps he had found something! Faustis stumbled down the stairs hurriedly and nearly collapsed with overwhelming relief when he saw Bud and Lisa.

Only Bud was unconscious and Lisa had a large nasty bruise on her forehead. He gaped.

Since they saw that no words would come out of his mouth, Elazul rolled his eyes (as uncouth as ever) and spoke up. "You should have looked around more before coming to the conclusion that Bud and Lisa were dead." He glanced at Pearly before adding, "By the way, who is Farryn?"

Faustis stopped. Should he tell them? What would their reactions be? He decided not to. If they were to be angry with him for not telling them, they might leave him and he knew that he would need their help. It would take a lot to subdue a great warrior like Farryn. She had nearly given her life to defend her charges, he could tell. A look at the room and all the blood stains on the walls were enough explanation. The enemy was dangerous.

He went over to the cupboard and started rummaging through it. "Farryn is…" he hesitated. He didn't want to lie to them, especially to Pearl. "Farryn is a friend. No. She's more than a friend."

~~~~~~~~~

Silently, Lisa cursed him. Why did he bother going on with his lying about Farryn? She was sure that Elazul and Pearl wouldn't mind that he had been lying to them. They truly cared about him, so a little lie (_'OK, maybe it's not that little', she thought) wouldn't immediately isolate him from them._

Rather irritably, she accepted the balm Faustis handed to her and glared at him. He shrugged apologetically and winked.

Once a liar, always a liar.

Faustis could tell a lie and you could believe him completely without a doubt, even if you knew his tendencies toward extravagance (except for Farryn. He *never* was able to get past her.). But here he was, telling the truth, and he was completely horrible at it. Didn't he know that the most important rule in lying was also applicable to telling the truth? Keep it simple.

The first part where he called Farryn a friend was fine, true enough, but why did he have to add the next part? One look at the Jumi Pearl's face practically screamed that she was in love with him. And being the stupid braggart he was, Faustis completely missed it.

The thing was, Lisa knew that Faustis loved Pearl. She had come upon a certain box when she had been straightening out his and Farryn's room. A box full of sketches. Sketches of Pearl. Faustis was a pretty good artist.

She rather quickly got over her crush on him. It was rather obvious that he was smitten with the Guardian of the Pearl Order. The look in his eyes was so emotional that it scared her.

She glared at him one more time and rather gently sat sown on her seat, wincing from the pain above her right eye. With Pearl looking like she was trying not to cry, she decided to change the subject when she saw Elazul trying to wake her brother with a little water.

"You won't wake him up that way," she announced.

"It always worked well before, little girl," the Knight replied.

Lisa stewed slightly at the "little girl" part but continued, "Maybe. But I doubt that it ever woke anyone up when the person has been '_persuaded' to sleep." She said this as nonchalantly as possible._

After a few minutes, Elazul turned to her and said irritably, "You have an annoying habit of keeping these little things to yourself."

Lisa shrugged and caught Faustis' eye. "I've had a good teacher."

He even managed to look slightly sheepish.

~~~~~~~~~

The Jumi pair was glad to see that Faustis' good humor had returned upon seeing his two charges again. He began to chatter again, exaggerating his fussing over the little girl.

As soon as Lisa finished applying the salve to her bruised forehead without any help from Faustis, she was encouraged to tell her account of what had come to pass while Faustis was gone. It appeared that a day after Faustis left. Farryn had fallen ill and was suffering from some unnamed disease. She was cold, yet sweating, and her skin had become almost transparent. Her eyes were changing color. She wasn't able to do much physical work because she always became dizzy.

Faustis felt his eyes tear up when he heard that. He *knew* something was wrong with her, but instead of staying to find out what, he left just because he was afraid to answer Lisa's question. He should have stayed with her. She suffered but had no one there to hold her hand. No one to make her smile. But then he had to leave for selfish purposes. 

Foolish.

He forced himself to listen as Lisa went on. The two sorcerers did all they could, and one night, she got better. She was almost herself again, but there was a haunted look in her eyes and she seemed almost sad. Like she was dreading something. Lisa assumed that it would go away once Faustis returned. That he would make her smile again.

But then, the next day, this enormous mob of Dead marched up to the house and broke in. The pet monsters in the shed rioted and broke free, attacking the Dead with such fervor that it was unbelieveable. They took care of nearly a fourth of the army, but they all suddenly fled.

Unfortunately, Farryn had just passed out, so they couldn't get her to safety. Bud and Lisa tried their best to defend the ailing Farryn, but they were failing. Just as they were about to go down, Farryn came to and defeated most of the dead. Alas, she had become almost drained through her powerful blast.

A man suddenly came in and said some things to Farryn in a language Lisa didn't recognize. Abruptly, Farryn's disease came back and she threw up blood. She still managed to fight off several new reinforcements and Bud and Lisa sprang to her aid. The man said more unfamiliar words and Bud then dropped down, asleep. 

Lisa had sensed what he was doing through the gathering of Mana and threw up a shield which warded off most of the spell but a particular lassitude came over her. She felt to the floor and watched helplessly as Farryn was overcome by the Dead.

Lisa's words were shaking. "There was so much blood," she whispered. Faustis hugged her, hiding his own tears.

Lisa went on, though. The Dead had started to destroy parts of the room that they hadn't wrecked yet. Luckily, though, Li'l Cactus was hidden underneath the overturned table. 

Out of the blue, an evil voice said that if Farryn would not come would them, the Dead would make Bud and Lisa one of their number. That was a fate worse than many other things one could think up, so Farryn gave up and allowed herself to be taken captive. One of the Dead saw Lisa awake and, even though she was paralyzed, it dragged itself over to her and swung his club. Just before Lisa blanked out, she heard screaming.

"And so I was unconscious for the next few days," Lisa finished. "It was a really mighty blow and I'm pretty sure that it cracked my skull back then. Luckily, though, Bud and I are fast healers. My problem's healable, but his isn't."

"Do you know how to wake your brother up?" Pearl asked her urgently.

Lisa looked unsure. "Yes and no."

Faustis sighed and gave her an exasperated glance. "'Yes and no'? What do you mean, Lisa? Speak straight."

Lisa gave Faustis a glare incredibly reminiscent of Farryn's irritated look whenever Faustis would break into her little sphere of happiness whenever she was reading some book. "I know several waking spells, but I'm not sure what effect they'd have on him because I don't recognize which spell the man used." She tapped her head. "I managed to memorize it, though."

Pearl mused, "Isn't there a general waking spell?? You know, one which would wake anything up? It could be used because you memorized that man's incantation. That might help."

They all looked at Lisa. Her face was pensive and her eyes were scrunched up thoughtfully. "It's…it's possible," she murmured. "But it's very powerful…I can't do it by myself. We'd need a professional to wake him up."

Faustis puffed up his chest, preparing to volunteer himself for the job, when Lisa glared at him Farryn-style again, causing all the air he inhaled to be released. Lisa nodded and said, "We go to Geo. That's the city where the strongest mages are."

"We can't go to Geo!" Faustis exclaimed.

"Why not?" Lisa shot back. "Don't you want Bud to wake up? Are you still afraid of that clingy excuse for a woman from the inn? Don't worry about her, I heard she finally got married to some poor fool."

Pearl and Elazul raised their eyebrows at Faustis. Faustis coughed sheepishly and kicked Lisa's foot under the table. "Ahem, Lisa…*cough-cough* crushes *cough-cough* the little onion boy *cough-cough*."

Lisa turned bright red and glared at him. "Shut up. Now, why don't you want to go to Geo?"

"Because Faustis wants to go to the Underworld," Elazul said quietly.

Pearl wrinkled her nose. "Whatever for?" she asked, puzzled.

Faustis regarded Elazul and spoke up. "The Dead attacked Farryn and stormed my house. I would need to know who has the power to command them and the breeding ground of the Dead is the Underworld. There must be something wrong down there for the Dead to be able to roam free in herds. Olbohn, the Keeper of the Underworld, ought to have a good excuse for this outrageousness."

Elazul nodded. "I will go with you."

"But what about Bud?" Lisa cried.

"I will stay here," Pearl announced. "Faustis has an extensive library. Therefore, I'm certain we can find a useful spell. Besides, I'm not going to the Underworld for any reason. Bud needs our help."

"It's Farryn's library," Lisa muttered mournfully.

Faustis continued, "If you find nothing, then we will all go to Geo after Elazul and I get back from the Underworld." Faustis looked at all of them. "Hopefully, by then, we'll have a faint idea of who had released the Dead."

Lisa raised her head, eyes narrowed in thought. "Hmm…I recall in one of Farryn's books a summoning spell. I think I can modify it enough to call a mage from Geo. But I need to look for it first. It's been ages since I've seen it."

Faustis shrugged. "Magic was always your department, Lis," he drawled, grinning. "You were always better at it than Bud."

Lisa grinned back at him. "Don't let him hear you say that or he'll be on your back about it for weeks."

Faustis chuckled. "All right." He glanced at the green-haired Jumi. "Elazul, we'll leave tomorrow. It's an hour's ride to get from Lumina to the Underworld. If my calculations are correct, we'll arrive at the Underworld in the morning if we leave tomorrow at dawn." He puffed up his chest again, knowing that he sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

Elazul nodded, keeping his face passive, "Sounds reasonable. But from experience, I've come to realize that your observations are usually wrong. We'd arrive there at noon. Morning if we leave now."

Faustis made a face. "Bah. Details."

~~~~~~~~~ 

So, that's it. I've woven the basic story plot (Faustis' journey to get his sister back) and brought in some of our favorite characters. That's not all, though. Next stop: the Underworld!


	4. The Trembling Spoon

~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 3

~~~~~~~~~

They left the next day as the sun rose in the rosy sky above the Tree, gently scattering its golden rays across the sleepy countryside. Now, it would have been an entirely ideal scene but for the arguing of two travelers being laden down with tools and supplies of all sorts by two girls. Pearl and Lisa were fussing over the two, continuously adding things to their packs. 

Faustis was positive they wouldn't need most of these items, however. After all, what was the point of brushing your hair when it would just messy again? He decided that, as soon as they were well out of sight, they would simply stash the unnecessary items underneath a bush.

They were already out of Lumina by sundown. It was a two-day walk from there to the Underworld. They didn't stop at inns to rest but instead camped out in the wild lands.

It might have been better if they did, though it might have also been just as well that they didn't. If they took the time to rest in inns, they might have heard about the rumors of Dead stalking through the lands and ransacking villages. If they had heard of that, they would have either been compelled to hunt down these Dead (as unlikely as it may be—none of our characters at the moment are this officious) or Faustis might have been too freaked out to travel any further.

Soon enough, they arrived at the meadow where the tombstone entrance of the Underworld was situated. 

Faustis took one glance at Elazul and said, "You'd better stick close to me, Elazul. The Shadoles won't harm you if they see that you're with me."

Elazul shrugged. "It's not like I know of anywhere to go in there. I don't know my way around the Underworld, so it would make sense that I wouldn't run off. I'm not the one who hangs out with dead shades, you are. Normal people only go to the Underworld once. They stay there, though."

Faustis looked at the Jumi for a moment. "You know, since we're going to a place where it would help a lot if we were cooperating and not fighting, I'll choose not to be insulted by that."

"Your choice."

When they entered the Underworld, Faustis looked around. There seemed to be something missing, but he couldn't make out what it was. Scowling at this unwelcome and unseen change, he motioned for Elazul to follow him through the dimly lit hallways and began to make his way toward the Keeper's den.

Faustis once more felt the strange lassitude rest upon his shoulders. It was an effect of a living mortal being visiting the World of the Dead. Living beings weren't supposed to be in the Underworld in the first place, so it would come to reason that the effect that kept the Dead asleep or trapped in the Underworld would try to put living beings to sleep until they died and woke. 

Not a very lovely idea.

Faustis could shoulder it, though he wasn't certain that Elazul could. As near to immortality as Elazul was with his Core and all, he wasn't blessed by the Flames. Faustis could feel the Flames burning inside him at that time. Those kept him awake in the lower levels of the Underworld.

As the two travelers went through the gloomy corridors of the Underworld, Faustis realized that the weight of the lethargy was heavier than before. Alarmed, he looked around—

Just in time to dodge an incoming spear.

Eyes widening with amazement, Faustis remembered that he held his sword in his hands as the Shadow raised its weapon again.

Fumbling to bring it up, he clumsily parried off the attacks on his life which soon followed. Although he appeared to be losing, Faustis suddenly saw an opening and thrust his sword forward to meet it—and his sword slid clear through the armor and passed right beyond its back. Faustis gaped in horror at his hands which were at the monster's neck. The darkness which the creature seemed to be made of reached out to take his hands.

He hurriedly pulled his sword back but was unable to avoid the Shadow's attack. He flew back and landed against the rock wall. Faster than Faustis thought possible, the Shadow sped to his side and kicked him up, punching him into the far wall.

He looked up slowly and caught sight of Elazul. The Jumi Knight of the Lapis Lazuli was being hard-pressed at the hands of two different enemies, each substantial, unlike Faustis' Shadow, but both were monsters that Faustis had never seen before. Both were similar to Faustis' Shadow, although they weren't transparent darkness and seemingly insubstantial.

The thought of that suddenly brought Faustis back into the present. He looked up and saw the Shadow looming over him, weapon raised. He yelped and rolled to one side as the floor beside him was pierced with a long black blade. There was a resounding spark emitted from the scraping of the weapon against the ground.

Without knowing why, Faustis launched himself up and tackled the Shadow. He passed right through, of course, but he also collided with something solid in the monster. When he crashed to the floor, Faustis saw that it was the Shadow's black blade. He stood up and raised it above it head, just as he realized that it was too heavy for him to raise and stumbled forward—

—Piercing the shadow and impaling it right where its heart would be, if it even had one. It collapsed, leaving behind a keening wail which seemed to freeze his soul and hurt his ears.

After gaping at the ground where it was before it died, Faustis righted himself, thanked whatever deity was bestowing upon him such luck, as clumsy as he was, and hurriedly ran to Elazul's side. As he hurried to help his friend, it came to his mind that the Shadow left no crystals of pure Mana.

What was going on?

Elazul had already finished one of the monsters, but the one left behind seemed to be bigger and was dripping venom. He was being driven back against the wall by the monster's relentless assault. Faustis could see Elazul tiring, though, thanks to the torpor induced by the Underworld. Faustis himself felt slightly weary.

Silently, Faustis crept up behind the monster and swung the Shadow's blade. With a shriek of surprise, the monster whirled around and hissed at Faustis. Panicking, he swung the dark blade again and the monster's head flew off. Faustis hurriedly stepped back to avoid the sudden spray of dark green blood.

"I didn't need any help," Elazul said shortly as he wiped his sword on the ground, also stepping back to avoid the dead monster's fountain of blood. Faustis grinned, knowing that it was Elazul's way of thanking him.

They went through the corridors of the Underworld quickly. They encountered no more monsters, substantial or insubstantial, and Faustis found that to be extremely disconcerting. He knew, for a fact, that many monsters had their nests in the Underworld.

At last, they arrived at Olbohn's door.

"Faustis?" Olbohn booming voice greeted them. "And who is this? A Jumi?" There was a tone of slight surprise in his voice. "And he is still living in here, yet unblessed by the Flames? Such a common occurrence. He is awake, though."

"He travels with me," Faustis said, looking into the room. It was more cluttered than he remembered. Almost as cluttered as Watt the Blacksmith's den. He saw Olbohn rise to his feet. "Hello, Olbohn. It's been long."

"Faustis. What are you doing here?"

"I'll get straight to the point. Olbohn…" Faustis hesitated, wondering if Olbohn had anything to do with his sister's abduction. "A few days ago, an army of Dead left the Underworld and returned to the World of the Living."

Olbohn's shrewd eyes suddenly grew weary. "Yes. Somehow I knew it would come to that."

A sudden surge of irritation caused Faustis to clench his fists and demand, "How could you let them do that, Olbohn!? Why haven't you done anything to bring them back to the Underworld? Do you know what they're doing up there?" An image of Farryn flashed through his mind.

The Wisdom's eyes became steely. "Sprite, I am not the Overlord of the Dead. I cannot control everything a wandering spirit does, moreover, a roaming army of the Dead." His tone lost its hardness. "But I understand that I have erred in my responsibilities. More than a few days ago, we somehow failed to detect a strange Lifeling sweeping through the levels of the Underworld. 

"His presence was a strange one here. He wasn't dead, nor was he alive. He went to the deepest echelon of the Underworld where no mortal can even enter, blessed or not, and still came out. When we learned of his presence here in the Underworld, it was too late for us to do anything, for he had raised an army of the Dead." He shook his head sadly. "Certainly, there are many Dead who long to return to Life, but he even roused those Spirits who were finally sleeping at peace and chained them to his army."

"Charismatic," Faustis commented.

Olbohn looked wearier than he had ever seen him. "What has caused you to leave the Song of Life to enter the World of the Dead, my traveler? Why are you seeking the cause of their freedom? What have the renegade Dead done to you?"

Faustis' throat closed up. "They took her, Olbohn. They took Farryn." He closed his eyes for a moment, holding back the tears that threatened to spill. "Do you know where the army went? Do you know who the Lifeling who took the dead is? Tell me, Olbohn! I will get her back."

Olbohn regarded the youth gravely. "I wish that I _did know. Whoever could take the Dead out of their sleep is a formidable opponent with great powers in his possession. He is a very dangerous individual."_

"How did he look like?" Elazul spoke up, asking the Keeper. "Perhaps we may know of him, though I don't believe that I have ever heard of anyone who could accomplish such an amazing feat." He looked troubled.

Olbohn sighed and admitted, "I have never exactly seen him, but I know someone who did. Let me call her." One of his arms made some symbols in the air. "She is another adventurer, like you, Faustis. A Lifeling, although she is unblessed by the Flames." His eyes seemed like he was dreading something with resignation.

A few moments later, a determined-looking girl with dark blue hair and beautiful wings gracefully protruding from her temples walked into Olbohn's den. Her pupils in her eyes were gold and had an astute, yet haunted look to them. Her indigo hair was pulled back by a strange bird-like ornament from which dangled several golden feathers. Tendrils of sapphire hair flowed around her shoulders to reveal a smooth face, wearing a steel band across her forehead with a striking falcon engraved upon it. Around her neck was a necklace of golden feathers and a medallion with a strange symbol on it. Her clothes vaguely the Jewel Thief's own but were pure white streaked here and there with black.

"Yes, Almighty Olbohn?" she asked mockingly, ignoring the two travelers in the room.

Olbohn nodded, looking slightly irritated. "Hello, Kestrelle. These visitors to the Underworld are investigating the sudden liberation of the Dead and the cause of their freedom. Would you, by any chance, still remember how the intruder looked like?"

" My memory is not as patchy as yours that you would be negligent enough to let in _two more_ Lifelings into the world of the Dead, Old Prude," she retorted at his tone.

The Wisdom glanced wearily at the other two then returned to spar with the pecky girl. "These two are welcome because they are accepted by the Flames," he told her, conveniently forgetting how Elazul actually wasn't. 

Faustis watched them argue, amused that prudish old Olbohn was actually stooping down to sticking out his odd tongue to the no less childish Kestrelle. It was all very fascinating, but he was impatient.

"So _do_ you remember how the Lifeling looked like?" he blurted out edgily.

She looked at him speculatively. "Yes," she answered. "Why?"

Elazul spoke up. "We are looking for him. He…has some information that we need. Would you mind telling us anything you might know about this fellow?"

She regarded him coolly. "…Maybe."

"What?" Faustis exclaimed before Elazul could begin to persuade her. "Why?"

Kestrelle answered him smoothly, "Because I believe that my information is highly valuable to you, therefore, I would like to have something in return." 

Faustis nearly laughed. She was a salesman! Or woman, actually. How remarkable that he'd find anyone like this in the Depths of the Underworld; he'd expected trapped Lifelings to spend every second of they unLife planning how to escape from the Underworld.

"We admire your belligerence," Elazul said dryly. "It's very becoming."

"We want that information," Faustis announced. "So name your price."

The girl placed her hands on her hips and looked him in the eye. "I want out."

"Eh?"

She sighed irritably, exactly mirroring Olbohn's past action. "I want out. I want to get out of the Underworld. In exchange for my information on the only other Underworld intruder aside from myself, I want to be free from the Underworld." As if to put extra emphasis, she shook her wrists, rattling the chains connected to her wristbands.

Faustis and Elazul gaped at her.

OK, so she _was_ like all the other Lifelings in the Realm of the Dead. But she was willing to barter with them, and that was good. Faustis almost always got his way in business transactions. 

Elazul remarked, "Well, there goes that idea."

Faustis suddenly exploded, "What are you, insane?" he cried to the girl. "You think that we have that kind of power to get you out of eternal bondage to the Underworld?"

Kestrelle jerked her thumb towards where Olbohn was. "He does. I'm almost certain that _you_ two don't."

Elazul shook his head, muttering under his breath. "I don't know whether to be relieved or insulted."

Kestrelle flashed him a cynical smile. "You can try both, if you want."

"Can you do it, Olbohn?" Faustis asked the Wisdom desperately. "It's quite different from returning the Dead back to Life since she's obviously *not* dead. She's just trapped here. As a favor to us, Olbohn, could you do it?"

Olbohn looked contemplative. "It never has been done before, but I am sure that it is possible. The task, I believe, is slightly less difficult that raising the long Dead or waking the sleeping Dragon."

As the old Wisdom continued rambling about other less difficult tasks, Faustis had a sudden burst of enlightenment. "Olbohn," he said urgently. The Wisdom took no notice. "Olbohn!" he yelled.

Olbohn started and looked at Faustis, blinking owlishly. "What is it, Sprite?"

Faustis rolled his eyes. "Wouldn't the simplest way to getting her out of the Underworld be blessing her with the Flames?"

"Blessing Kestrelle? With the Flames?" For a moment, the idea seemed to be incomprehensible to Olbohn. He then exclaimed, "A capital idea, Faustis! Why haven't I thought of that before? I could have been rid of her so long ago!"

Kestrelle sniffed and remarked snippily, "I'm extremely touched by your affection for me, Olbohn but I perceive a flaw in the Sprite's otherwise brilliant and screamingly obvious plan."

"And what could that be?" Olbohn asked testily through gritted teeth. Faustis observed with some certain degree of amusement that the two of them didn't really quite like each other.

Kestrelle shrugged. "A Lifeling who is trapped in the Underworld without undergoing any blessing from the Flames cannot enter the Higher Levels in which the room of the Blessed Flames is found. How can there be a blessing if the recipient of these tidings is not present?"

There was a slight pause as they all considered the problem. Elazul suddenly asked Olbohn, "What is required in the ceremony of a blessing?"

Olbohn answered, "In a blessing, the important factors are the recipients, the clergymen, and the Flames. Why do you ask, Jumi?"

Elazul glanced at Faustis. Slowly, the idea he was suggesting dawned upon Faustis and he grinned, turning to where the Wisdom stood, looking perplexed. "Olbohn," he began. "If we bring you the Flames and a clergyman who can perform the ceremony, will we be able to free Kestrelle from the Underworld?"

Olbohn's eyes brightened at this understanding. "It might just work!" he exclaimed in an awed voice. He began muttering to himself, heading over to the bookshelf and pulling down several volumes.

Faustis and Elazul exchanged a glance. "We'd need something to carry the Flames in," he said critically. "Maybe a fire bottle."

Kestrelle shook her head. "They say that the fire is a boiling liquid. It doesn't burn people if it is blessed by a clergyman, but in raw form, it scorches unprotected people when one is less than four feet away from even a cupful of the fire. It also burns through every sort of material. Including fire bottles," she shot them a look.

"So much for bringing you the Flames," Elazul said matter-of-factly.

She grinned, showing pointy white teeth. "Not so fast, Jumi." Kestrelle held up a shiny crystal decanter. "This is made from the Ice Crystals from the moon. It can hold the fire and it also protects the holder from the long-distance heat."

"Ice?" Faustis exclaimed skeptically. "ICE?"

She glared at him. "It's not *just* ice," she said pointedly. "Nothing can break this decanter. Nothing can burn through it either." She handed the decanter to Elazul, giving Faustis a meaningful look. "It's the only one left in the world. Take care of it."

Olbohn then emerged from behind the pile of books that had collapsed on him a few moments afterward. "It *is* possible!" he announced triumphantly. "And you don't need a clergyman! I can do it myself. It's simple, really."

"All the same," Kestrelle said flippantly, "I'd rather have a full-fledged *intelligent* clergyman handling the ceremony."

"I'm intelligent!" 

"You're a Wisdom," she replied. "Not necessarily intelligent, but you can be wise." She looked at Faustis and Elazul. "Are you still here?"

They scowled at her. Olbohn suddenly emerged from behind a stack of books from across the room. "The process is easy!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "I myself can do it with my eyes closed and my ears shut."

"Would you do it as a favor to us?" Faustis asked eagerly, striding up to the Keeper.

He glanced furtively at where the girl stood, talking to Elazul and handing him the decanter. "To tell you the truth, Faustis, I'm counting this as a favor to you. If she remains in the Underworld any longer, I'm afraid that I would loose my head."

Faustis laughed and clapped him on the back. "We accept your favor, Olbohn."

Kestrelle suddenly rounded on Olbohn. "You'd better do it right, old man. I'm certain that you wouldn't mind if I just happened to be teleported to the Bone Forest unarmed."

"My dear," Olbohn replied dryly, "Your words are weapon enough. I am positive that you could talk any monster there to death."

Kestrelle glared at him then turned to Faustis and Elazul. "I'll be right here. You'd better go now."

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *

The two had made their way through the Underworld easily. They encountered no more of the strange monsters, but what alerted their senses was that they met none of the original inhabitants of the shadowy recesses of the Underworld. Oddly enough, there were no signs of any Shadoles but for the one they had seen in Olbohn's room before it drifted away.

Elazul glanced around warily. It was too quiet. He had heard many stories about the Underworld but its being a silent place was never mentioned in the tales he had heard traveling the world. Still, the lack of adversaries sped up their pace and they soon reached the chamber where the Flames burned eternally.

The cavern was large and perfectly domed. The rock walls were jagged and littered all over with protruding rock peaks, but there was a certain beauty to the room. The stairway leading to the pit where the Flames were was intricately carved and seemed very sturdy. There were no Shadoles in sight here as well. Perhaps it was just as well that Olbohn agreed to be the clergyman, for they would have trouble finding a priest elsewhere.

There was one more thing they had noticed which was not in the norm, though. The pit where the Flames were was covered with a glowing and pulsating black shield.

Faustis gaped at it. "That's not supposed to be there!" he exclaimed.

Elazul was suddenly on his guard. "Faustis," he murmured, sensing a strange presence. "There's someone else in this room with us. I...I think I can detect strong powers." He closed his eyes and spread his awareness to follow the Mana flow, but it all suddenly plunged toward the fire pit. He jerked back out and looked at the Sprite with anxiety. "The waves of Mana are being absorbed by the shield."

"The power you sense is probably just coming from that...that big black thing," Faustis muttered.

Elazul slowly shook his head, looking around now. "No...not from there..."

A dark seductive voice then laughed. "From me, actually."

Elazul and Faustis whirled around and saw a tall woman, almost as tall as Elazul, who had cropped black hair and gleaming scarlet eyes standing on a large outcropping rock on the wall. Something like a circled embraced her crown. The woman's dress was black and short underneath a long black greatcoat. Patterns were latticed all over her clothes.

Elazul saw that her hands seemed to be glowing with a similar black shadow from the shielded pit. "You're generating the pit," he observed calmly, determined not to betray any emotion to the mysterious woman.

"No question," the lady scoffed. "You're a smart one, I can see."

Elazul scowled at her. "I'm not done yet, witch. As far as I can see, you are using an advanced version of the Black Wings technique of your apparently invisible attack." Elazul paused and smirked. "You don't appear to be holding any weapons. Are you afraid that using them might break your fingernails?"

Faustis shook his head pityingly. "From breaking the evil woman's strategy down to insulting them by layering them with unbearable girlyness. Elazul, how do you expect to get them to like you?"

The red-eyed woman laughed. "Oh, I already like him."

Elazul muttered, "Not like _that_ does me any credit."

The woman ignored that and said imperiously, "Now. What are your purposes in coming here? Tell me now."

"Who are you to ask our business?" Faustis shot back, feeling slightly irascible with the woman's exalted sense of her own authority, which most probably was self-appointed, since she had never been in the Underworld, for all the times he journeyed to the realm of the Unliving.

The woman scowled at him. "You are a fool to talk back like an insolent child."

Faustis shrugged, acting merely on bravado, since the penetrating red eyes of the woman chilled his blood. "I get that a lot. Now talk. Tell us who you are."

In exasperation, the woman turned so she faced them in profile. "If you foolish mortals must know...my name is Desdemona, Daughter of the Black Dragon and trusted general of Her Divinity. Now, you mortal fools, tell me of your intentions."

Elazul answered brusquely, "We merely wish to visit the Flames. So withdraw all Mana from your shield."

"Or else...?" Desdemona teased. "What can you do to me, the Highest ranking Daughter? I will not cause my shield to flee from _you_ pitiful fools." She laughed disdainfully. "My orders are Her wish."

"A subordinate!" Elazul said mockingly. "Fascinating. Does your Mistress make you lick her shoes, being the lowly lapdog you are?"

"Elazul," Faustis warned, noting the look of growing on her face. "Don't aggravate the demon lady."

"Dim-witted fools!" hissed the woman. The crimson lights in her eyes seemed to burn. "Dare you make a mockery of the One who has the Stars at Her Ethereal command? Her justice on you will be swift and lethal."

Faustis sighed. Elazul's manners needed improvement. How else could he infuriate the demoness so much? Did he expect to win the ladies over with such boorish etiquette and lack of charm? '_Well'_, he concluded, looking over at the raging woman. '_Maybe it's all right if he doesn't win this one over. I expect that dealing with this one, he'd just get burned.'_

"We had no idea that we would offend," Faustis called out to the enflamed woman. "We just want to catch some of the Flames and leave you to do all the Mana-leeching you like." In an underhand tone, he muttered to Elazul, "Remind me to hurt Olbohn. He didn't tell us anything about this psycho."

"I'd be glad to hurt him for you," Elazul replied and removed his sword from its black sheathe. "But first, we must attend to the Bird-girl's demands. I'm tired of standing around and waiting. Let's get the Fire right now."

Faustis shrugged, "Why not?" and unbuckled his own sword. "It normally goes against my grain to attack a woman, but in this case..." He trailed off and completed the sentence in his mind. _'In this case, I'll do it...for Farryn.'_

Visions of his twin sister came unbidden to him. The picture of her sitting calmly in the library or on a tree branch, reading a book, the picture of her laughing and tending to the monsters, the picture of her before he left—pale and frightened—a great contrast to the picture of Farryn as the warrior she was...he murmured, "Farryn."

Desdemona's eyes flicked over to him suddenly. "Ah! The Sprite!" She began to laugh. "I was told that I might expect you to come down here to confront me. I hadn't expected you to be so small and weak, Sprite." She laughed harshly. "You will not be able to save her, mortal. She belongs to the Mistress now."

Elazul saw Faustis' eyes turn bleak and his hands grip his sword tighter. And without a warning, the fair-haired adventurer charged toward the crag where Desdemona stood laughing. Faustis seemed to move with an ungodly speed as his flat eyes remained unwavering on the demon lady. 

Desdemona stopped laughing and took a step back. Her eyes were narrowed as she watched him close the distance between them. "So it is true," Elazul heard her murmur. She then snapped her fingers and a roiling shadow loomed up behind her. "I will let you have this one, Sprite," Desdemona said, smiling nastily. "That is...if you can defeat the Enawerion!"

She took a step backwards, into the shadow, and disappeared.

And to Elazul's horror, the pulsating shadow changed color and turned into the black of a portal. A strange, many-armed beast stepped through the shadow and into the cavern, roaring a vast teeth-rattling sound that shook the Jumi to the core.

Its head rested upon a thick and elongated neck, and its back, which was stiffly arched, was lined with black dangerous-looking ridges. Its many arms were scaled, although its head was feathered, and its tail reared high above its body. It was colored in various shades of red and black and its eyes were a fearsome white.

Faustis took one look at the beast, and suddenly, he was tripped by the monster's tail in time to save himself from being clotheslined by one of the Enawerion's many grasping limbs.

"Faustis," he called out, partly in disbelief. Where had the amazingly skilled Sprite gone? Faustis reverted to his klutzy blundering self, quite different from the gracefully lethal warrior who had saved the Jumi race.

The monster let out another roar, and Elazul charged, forgetting about Faustis' double personalities. He raised his sword to rain mighty blows upon the Enawerion's tail, freeing Faustis from being repeatedly slammed into the wall and possibly torn apart.

He leaped back to avoid the claws of the monster and lunged in, managing to lop off an arm with a powerful calculated blow. The Enawerion reared high, bellowing its pain, and Elazul swung his sword again, hacking another limb off. The beast was weak where the elbows were jointed, for some odd illogical reason. 

Elazul retreated slightly and shouted to Faustis, "Get up!" He then had to furiously defend himself from the Enawerion's assault as it swung all its arms and its tail in a deadly dance.

Faustis did get up, stumbling slightly, and he gathered himself. Faustis lifted his sword and leveled it at the monster's back. He ran and missed, creating a deep gash in its side.

The monster screamed again and turned its attention from Elazul, who was grateful for the Sprite's timely intervention. After taking a moment to catch his breath, Elazul cleared his thoughts and relaxed his mind, closing his eyes. He reached for the Mana flow—

Only to find nothing where the vast ocean of power once was.

With a start, Elazul's eyes snapped open, and he reeled from the loss. Holding himself up with his sword, he called to Faustis, "The Mana flow isn't there."

Faustis promptly tripped with surprised, nearly impaling himself, but also saving himself from living the rest of his life with only half a head—one half to be found on his neck and the other in the monster's belly.

Once again, Elazul found himself admiring and disbelieving his companion's mind-boggling luck. Faustis always seemed to be guided by some spirit who always pushed Faustis out of the way of harm.

"What?" Faustis exclaimed, scrambling back to his feet and somehow evading the whirling claws of the monster. "No way! Are you sure? Gah!"

The Enawerion's claws swung toward the back of Faustis' head. Elazul was there in an instant, bringing up his sword to deflect the incoming blow.

"Try it yourself," Elazul remarked, smoothly parrying the Enawerion's spiked tail with a fluid swing and following up with a relentless barrage of attacks.

Faustis frowned, closing his eyes for a moment, and suddenly, he staggered to his knees, breathing hard. He couldn't speak for a few moments. Elazul observed this, still keeping the beast's attention on himself with his blows, and realized that as a Sprite, Faustis was more in tune to Mana than the Jumi. The Sprite was pale and breathing hard because of the loss of Mana, whereas Elazul merely stumbled with a momentary loss of strength.

Elazul hurried to defend his friend, but Faustis lurched to his feet in an amazing feat of swiftness, executing a flawless moon jump to end with a slightly less perfect back slash. Before landing, he used the Enawerion's back as a springboard with his sword, impaling the creature, and propelled himself off just as the Enawerion roared up and bellowed a vast cry of anger.

Elazul flipped backwards to avoid the descent of the monster's heavy bulk and evaluated the situation quickly in his head. Several solutions ran through his mind, most implausible, until he had an idea.

He lunged toward the monster while calling out to Faustis, "Faustis, our attacks aren't really damaging the monster—only Mana or can get rid of it."

"I've noticed, Elazul," Faustis replied, steadying himself against a wall across the room. He seemed out of breath from the incredible moon jump. "So what do we do?"

Elazul grinned and ducked under the monster's hideous tail, escaping a bad maiming from the wicked blade at the tip of its tail. "Do your instruments work on Mana?"

Faustis looked bewildered. "What a silly question! Of course not!" he said indignantly, not realizing what he was saying. "They run on the Mana life force within us—oh." He looked a little sheepish.

"Yes," Elazul stated. "Oh. You'd better hurry up." The Enawerion charged toward him and the Jumi Knight smoothly flipped over the creature, landing carefully on its spiny back. His sword sought the powerful muscle which tied the beast's arms together and he plunged his sword down, severing the Enawerion's rack of right arms and legs and setting loose a gushing fountain of blood.

The monster screamed so loudly that Elazul fell off, landing hard on a pile of rocks which were none too soft. His head cracked against a boulder and stars exploded in his eyes. He groaned and shook his head, clearing the stars. His eyes widened and he saw the monster upon him, rearing for a blow which would crush him.

A sweet tune suddenly soared into the air like a fledgling bird, but with the innate talent to fly. The monster halted his deadly charge on Elazul and looked away. Elazul raised himself to look and he saw Faustis playing a smaller version of the flute. The Enawerion suddenly began to quiver in fear as Faustis grew more proficient at the little Instrument.

Elazul saw its tail twitch and called out weakly, "Get back!" but he was too late.

The monster's tail sent the Sprite hurtling toward a deep fissure Elazul knew was layered with molten magma at the bottom. The Instrument clattered to the floor nearby.

Elazul hauled himself up and lunged for the little Flute before the Enawerion could. Tucking it into his sleeve, he ducked under the grabbing limbs of the Enawerion and raced to the edge of the fissure. He glanced down and saw Faustis hanging on the rock wall. It appeared that the back of his shirt had caught on a jutting rock.

It appeared that Faustis' luck was once again at work.

Elazul heaved Faustis back on the ground and the Enawerion was upon them. Thrusting the flute toward Faustis' hands, Elazul raised his sword, his head pounding after it had slammed against the boulder.

The beast flung him aside and he landed hard on the floor. It seemed to be aiming for Faustis. But Faustis still hadn't regained his breath. Desperately, Elazul hurled a rock at the monster's neck, and the beast whipped its head around. 

Elazul staggered to his feet, the only thing on his mind was time. Faustis could defeat the Enawerion. Elazul saw this the moment the beast had quailed on the sight of the little Flute. Faustis needed to Play it…

The Enawerion was incredibly fast, sweeping Elazul into its flurry of blows, although its right side was virtually useless now. Elazul parried most of them off, but several hit their mark. He realized that he was growing weaker. Normally, the wounds Elazul had obtained wouldn't weaken him, but he realized that this feeling wasn't normal. A strange weariness ate at him, even though he still had abundant energy to delay the beast. He recognized it then.

The Underworld.

It was going to take him if he went on like this. Although he had much strength left, the weariness would take him, since he was without the protection of Mana.

While brooding about this inwardly, the Knight's guard went down a notch and the Enawerion thrust itself forward, butting Elazul into a wall. The beast opened its mouth—

A song burst into the air, its melody sweet and high as it flooded the entire vast chamber of the Flames. It rang through Elazul's ears and seemed to lift the fatigue that had begun to settle on his shoulders.

The Enawerion roared in anger and pain and whirled around, its right side swinging uselessly. He lunged for the Sprite. Hurriedly, Elazul sprinted forward to stop the beast from attacking Faustis.

A blinding white light filled the cavern and Elazul staggered back, using his sword for support. The scream of the Enawerion was deafening. The light faded into a gentle blue wave of Mana, and the monster writhed in agony.

Elazul looked up and heard the Sprite playing a mysterious tune off the flute, the light surrounding him alternating between blue and white. A figure seemed to walk toward the monster, radiating light and an awesome aura. Elazul peered closer, dragging himself upright.

She had long flowing silver hair with balls of light scattered randomly among her glowing tresses. Her eyes contained a light so brilliant that the Flames themselves paled in comparison with the unearthly beauty. Her skin was dark blue, and a pair of silver wings protruded from her back, making her look like some heavenly angel. Her blue and silver robes flowed around her as she moved, displaying points of light every now and then, making her look like a clear night sky.

The Enawerion let out another bloodcurdling scream as the strange Spirit approached its fallen body. The starry being brought her hands forward and spread her fingers. A pillar of light, tinged with a silvery blue color suddenly exploded from within the floor around the divine creature, dashing forward to blindingly envelop the monster.

Another scream and then the light faded. Elazul uncovered his eyes and saw no more of the Demoness' creature. The Spirit remained, however, her gauzy clothes floating around her in her nimbus of delicate light.

Faustis, nearby, had stopped playing, and he gawked at the Spirit. Hurriedly, Elazul bent on one knee and lowered his head. Faustis, after a moment's surprise, followed suit. Slowly, the being approached them.

When she stood before the awestruck men, she looked at them for a few moments and bowed.

~Greetings~ she seemed to say to the two kneeling warriors. Her voice, though soft, seemed to reverberate through Elazul's core. He was nearly bowled over in his mind by the overwhelming sense of the Spirit's Aura. He wondered about that, having played a few Instruments himself. None of the beings had ever urged him to give them the respect reserved for a Goddess.

~You have my greetings, and my thanks as well~ continued the Spirit. ~Now stand, my two warriors of the Stars—there is no need for this obeisance~

Elazul stood up carefully, followed by a slightly stumbling Faustis. They bowed again. 

~Both of you are strong, yet times will call for you to be stronger. The road to victory will be hard, and barred with mines of pain. Suffering. It is possible that you may not be strong enough to bear the future~

"You know then, Great Lady, of what will happen in the future?" Elazul dared a question.

The Spirit smiled slightly. ~No one can tell the future, Lapis Lazuli Knight, but Fate may see fit to grant possibilities to those who seek to foresee~ Her smile faded. ~I give you words of warning, my Warriors. What is good is gone, replaced by a deadly power which walked hand in hand with Creation~

Elazul felt slightly anxious when he heard her words, wanting to ask more. But Faustis beat him to it.

"If you know what might happen in the future, Great One," he began. "You would know where Farryn is, wouldn't you?" His eyes held hope and fear. "Please…tell me."

The Spirit closed her eyes, then opened them, revealing them to be brighter and yet, darker. ~She is. But many things have not happened to her, more already have, and even more is in store for her, lying in wait with Time~

"But that doesn't tell me anything!" Faustis said desperately. "I want to know where she is…" He seemed to deflate, looking wearier than Elazul had ever seen him. "If you cannot tell me where, though, at least, ease my mind a little. Is she…is she all right?"

The Spirit's glorious eyes seemed to grow sorrowful. ~Save us~ she murmured, beginning to fade away. ~Save us…both of us~ Her eyes remained in the air for a few moments, and vanished as well.

"No!" Faustis cried. He let a keening cry of despair. "Please, tell me…" He fell to his knees.

Elazul's heart wrenched for the warrior (albeit not a very excellent one) and turned away awkwardly, knowing that there was nothing he could do at the moment but wait for Faustis to recover himself. 

He glanced at the pit where the Flames leaped eagerly, crackling with Mana energy. The black shield was gone now, and he could see the mystical vapor rising into the air to form vague pictures. Things, he supposed, had gone back to normal in the Underworld, whatever kind of normal it was. 

The strange weariness lifted from his shoulders a little, and he walked toward the pit. He stood at the edge to peer at the Mana-filled Flames, wondering what kept them burning. 

A striped Shadole suddenly popped up, startling him into unsheathing his sword. The shade grinned. "Thank you," the specter said. Elazul wondered what it meant.

The Shadole seemed to notice the Jumi's puzzled look and explained, "Upon defeating the Enawerion monster left by that Demon Witch, you lifted the sleeping spell she placed on the Mana upon the rest of the Underworld. Well, most of the Underworld, anyway—those who were strong enough to resist the Waker's spell."

He meant the necromancer, Elazul realized. "So there are still Dead left in the Underworld's halls?" he asked.

The Shadole bobbed his head. "Seventh level Dead," he offered. "They're still mad that some half-Lifeling came in and stole all their servants away from them. They couldn't do anything about it then, since the Demon Lady put them under her Hell spell. That is, until you came along and foiled her up. Now they're a lot more careful, even without their servants. Thanks."

Faustis, who appeared at Elazul's side, remarked, "That's not good." He seemed to have recovered from his fit of emotion.

The Shadole greeted him. "Hello, Sprite. Thank you for waking the Piccolo." He gave Faustis a box. "We've been waiting for it to sing."

Elazul hardly noticed the exchange, having grown used to the fact that people usually came up and gave sometimes important things to the Sprite. He mused, "That explains why I couldn't harness the Mana, though. Who could have such a power to make Mana dormant?"

"Her, apparently," Faustis replied. "Can you use the Mana now?" Elazul held up a hand which glowed blue. "All right, then," Faustis grinned. "No more problem."

"Yeah, yeah," the Shadole looked at them, a self-important look coming to its eyes. "So what do you want to do?"

As soon as they finished gathering enough of the Flames for the ceremony into the decanter, Elazul and Faustis made their way back to Olbohn's room. On the way, they encountered demonic monsters intent on impaling their heads on sticks, but that was customary—at least, customary in the Underworld. It appeared that the Ghostly Mana had returned.

When they reached Olbohn's chambers after surviving an encounter with a group of particularly nast Faces, they entered the room to find Olbohn and Kestrelle in the midst of a battle strike. Kestrelle appeared to be winning.

Faustis laughed involuntarily, and blanched as Kestrelle gave him an evil glare.

Elazul smirked. "Have we interrupted anything?" he drawled.

"Not at all," Kestrelle replied, further pressing her sword against Olbohn's neck. "Your presence does not hamper my ability to flick my wrist and end this fop's life."

"Why do you want him alive?" Kestrelle asked. "He's just a wastrel."

Faustis shrugged. "The man's a Wisdom, and a Keeper of the Underworld to boot. Without him, all the Dead left would be out there with the necromancer's army." He paused. "Besides, he owes me money. And you need him alive."

"Goddess curse it, but you're right." Kestrelle reluctantly released the wheezing Olbohn. She looked at the Wisdom with obvious distaste. "Bless me now and I'll be out of your hair, unless Life sees fit to send me back down here."

"As long as you're out of my balding hair!" Olbohn exclaimed.

"Is she that bad?" Faustis asked him, turning around to look at the girl. She glared at him.

Olbohn replied with resignation, "You wouldn't believe it."

Elazul had to smile.

~~~~~~~~~

Moving right along, now…?


	5. The Firefly Lamp

~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Four

~~~~~~~~~

The female adventurer they had rescued from the Underworld released the breath she was holding once they reached the Surface. 

Stepping out from the tombstone that marked the entrance into the Underworld, she stiffened suddenly and the odd pallor of her skin seemed to glow for a moment. She gasped in surprise and the light disappeared as she buckled to her knees.

"Kestrelle!" Faustis exclaimed, kneeling next to her. "Are you okay? What was that?" 

He looked at her closely and was surprised when he saw that her skin had darkened to a more normal color. Her hair had darkened to a fuller blue as well. His eyes widened. "You're alive now, aren't you?"

Kestrelle smiled.

Elazul suddenly spoke. "Faustis...there's something out there." He was standing on the path, looking out into the night with an intense look on his face. His hands drifted to the hilt of his sword. "It's not right..."

Faustis stood up abruptly and loosened his sword in its sheath as well. When things weren't right, they usually were painful, evil, or both.

Kestrelle slowly stood up. She extended her hand, fingers hanging low and seemed to be holding something. Her golden eyes were sharp. "The Dead are coming. I can feel them."

Faustis blanched. "H-how do you know? Maybe it's just a Zombie monster. You know how those things look like the Dead..."

She met his gaze squarely. "Do you think that I wouldn't have learned to tell when the Dead are nearby after spending seven long years trapped in the World of the Dead? I know what I am sensing."

Faustis shrugged. "How was I to know that you didn't spend all your time thinking up ways to get that tick in Olbohn's eye throbbing?"

Kestrelle paused. "It _does _look a little like that, didn't it?"

"More than a little."

Elazul's eyes were glazed over and Faustis sensed his touch to the Mana Flow. "They know we're here," the Jumi knight murmured. His eyes focused. "They're here."

Almost as if on cue, dozens of glowing lights emerged in the relative darkness of the night. Then they appeared.

Faustis took an involuntary step back. He had never seen any of the Dead before. Sure, he had heard stories about them and how they looked like—and what they ate—but absolutely none of the stories even came close to seeing the real thing. No tales of fear, no matter how eloquent, could describe this.

Of course, standing in front of a tombstone which led to the Underworld in the middle of the night and seeing millions of dead yet glowing eyes popping up everywhere could have had something to do with elevating the terror he felt.

And the lifeless and endless moaning didn't help any either.

Not to mention the stench of rotting skin.

"Ugh!" he yelped. "Horrible smell! Horrible smell!" He could even almost taste it if he breathed through his mouth. "This is terrific."

Elazul grunted, clapping his hand over the lower part of his face. "No kidding."

Kestrelle was least affected by the odorous fragrance emitted by the decomposing bodies. She wrinkled her nose but straightened in an undeniable battle position. "They don't look like they're here to welcome us back," she warned. Her extended hand suddenly clenched into a fist, and a golden dagger-like saber appeared in her hand with a brief shimmer. She smiled at it. "I've missed you."

Faustis didn't bother to wonder how she did that—Elazul could do it, Farryn had told him. He had done it to give her the Sword of the Jumi. So he decided not to act surprised. Faustis was supposed to have seen it before anyway.

Elazul nodded and disappointed Faustis by drawing his sword out from his sheath instead of thin air. Faustis sighed and followed suit, wondering if he could get Elazul to teach him how to unsheathe his sword out of nothing.

It would impress the ladies for sure.

Unless they've seen it before, of course.

"Maybe they don't want to attack us," Faustis hoped, knowing the chances of that (very fat ones). "Maybe they just want to go back into the Underworld. You know, having been away from home for so long..."

One of the Dead suddenly lunged at him, arms flailing and putrid skin flying around everywhere. Stumbling back and flailing his arms as well, Faustis was able to run it through with a miraculous thrust of the sword he had forgotten he was holding.

"Scratch that," Elazul remarked, grinning at him and crouched low for a moment, his cape billowing around him at the sudden movement. His fingers balanced the sword between them. Then he lunged forward, released like a coiled spring, into the mass of Dead.

Kestrelle let out a wild laugh and spun once, reveling in being alive and eager, and followed, acrobatically weaving in and out of the fray.

Faustis sighed, scrutinizing the battle. "Why don't they ever want to just play a nice, un-violent game of chess?" Then he moved into battle as well, only without so much theatrics and fancy maneuvers.

The Dead were relatively easy to knock down and their assaults were easy for them to dodge (except for Faustis, of course). They were easy to fight because...well, they were already dead. But their state of Undead gave them an advantage. A stab through the heart wouldn't put it out of commission. No. One would have to dismember the corpse's entire body. And even then, it wouldn't be dead yet. 

Figuratively speaking, of course.

Inside the rotting throng, Faustis gagged and often keeled over whenever he lopped off a fetid body part. The smell of the Dead on the outside was bad enough. The innards...they put a whole new meaning to the word 'stink'.

"Gah!" he exclaimed, after cutting down another monster. "Don't these things ever bathe?"

Kestrelle, who was fighting behind him, answered, "There is no water for them to wash in deep in the Underworld. All there is," she paused to expertly slice a Dead in half, "is fire."

"Watch out!" Elazul shouted and slashed at the Dead which was stumbling up behind her. "This isn't working. We have to stick together," he snapped. "Cover each others' backs. Quickly!"

Faustis dodged a blow and hurried to raise his sword against the zombie he was against when suddenly, he tripped over a dismembered arm. "Aah!" he cried, falling into his opponent sword-first. He knocked it down and scrambled to get up. Another one lunged at him the moment he regained his balance, knocking him back into the corpse he had fallen on.

Wincing at the mess he made falling flat onto the dead body, he turned around and saw the Dead which had knocked him down looming above him, a blank look in its glowing eyes. Faustis fought the urge to retch, opting instead to impale the thing on his sword.

Getting rid of that one, he stood and stepped back, only to fall into another one. It grabbed at him and he slashed its hands off, recoiling from the rank smell and running into another Dead.

"This is not my day!" he yelled angrily and swept his sword across the Dead. It fell, only to be replaced by another over-eager corpse.

"There are too many of them," Elazul observed, after clinically dispatching of three of the Dead with a single powered strike. "There is no way for us to win this battle. We will tire ourselves out soon and the sun does not come up until a few hours."

"Are you telling me that we are to retreat from this fight?" Kestrelle snapped, beheading her adversary with her golden blade.

"You may stay if you like. But I can see that there are more reinforcements on the way. Can you last out the night fighting this rabble?" Elazul had replied in an amazingly calm voice, considering they were in the middle of an unholy mass battling for their lives with no hope of winning and more enemies coming to make sure they didn't.

Faustis blanched. "More Dead coming?" He felled the Dead he was grappling with and vaulted into the air, using its body as a springboard. Using the moon jump and soaring above the battle, he could see that Elazul was right. A black roiling carpet of Dead covered the horizon and was making its way towards the tombstone.

He flipped backwards, falling to the ground and landing faultily on a moaning Dead warrior. "Elazul is right," he announced, willing the ground to stop spinning. He tripped into a zombie that was about to attack Kestrelle. "Ow..." he muttered, then stood up, decapitating the Dead for good measure. "We need to leave now. Unless you're eager to see Olbohn again."

Kestrelle scowled, her anger clear in her strike. "It will be as you say." She turned away and struck out with her blade, clearing a brief path in the throng. "Come on!" She plowed in, her blade flashing everywhere.

Elazul and Faustis exchanged a glance. Faustis noted, "She's very efficient, isn't she?"

Elazul rolled his eyes. "Let's just get out of here. My skin feels like it's crumpling up from all the stink."

Faustis grinned. "Can't have _that _now, can we?" he drawled. "Wrinkles are the penultimate evil."

"Cram it. You don't ever shut up, do you?"

"Not very often, no, sorry."

The two followed in Kestrelle's wake, cutting down whatever ran into their path. But there seemed to be no end to the Dead. Faustis realized that both armies had merged. The reinforcements had arrived.

_Not good_.

Elazul seemed to have noticed this as well. He cursed fluently and stopped running. He gripped his sword tightly and Faustis felt a trickle of Mana flow into the Jumi Knight. Faustis skidded to a halt, staring at Elazul. "What are you doing?"

Kestrelle stopped as well, looking back. "What is happening?"

Elazul focused his gaze on his sword and slowly, it began to glow with a fierce blue light. His lapis lazuli core had also begun to emanate an indigo light. He raised his sword, pointing the end up and stated quietly, voice brimming with Mana, "Motion of Truth."

Instead of assaulting an opponent, as the attack was supposed to do, the light increased in his sword, becoming blindingly bright. The area flooded with pale blue light and the Dead all flinched and froze in the glare. Faustis staggered to one knee, bowled over by the intense wave of Mana.

But it didn't hurt him. It hurt the Dead, though, if their unholy screams were any indication of their agony.

If anything, it gave Faustis a sense of peace. He looked around in awe and saw that the night sky had lightened slightly and that the stars were giving off a pale blue light. The moon glowed so serenely that Faustis found himself smiling at it. 

The sky was so beautiful that his troubles didn't seem to be so important anymore. After all, who cared if he was in the middle of an Undead army? Who cared if they were all quite eager to take him down?

But an image of Farryn crossed his mind and he closed his eyes. Of course. He couldn't ever forget Farryn. She was important. Everything else mattered little in comparison to her. He smiled.

Elazul lowered his sword, still glowing in the aftermath. "We go _now_," he commanded.

Faustis nodded and lunged forward, following the already running Kestrelle. "Where did you learn _that trick?" he asked, sprinting along beside the running Knight._

Elazul's mouth turned up in a wry smile. "I've been practicing it for the last two months. It's pretty difficult to learn—" He paused to brush aside the undead corpse blocking his way. "And I've still got a pretty long way to go before I master it." He lifted his hand and Faustis saw that it was trembling. "Once I do, this won't happen anymore."

"You're pretty drained, huh?" Faustis remarked, shoving aside several Dead. "Wow—you've stunned all of them. It'll make the escape much easier."

Elazul grimaced. "Yeah, well, don't take a leisurely stroll, Faustis. It's not permanent."

"What do you mean?" Kestrelle demanded. "Are you saying that they could wake up any moment?" She gestured to the field of frozen Dead. "That we could find ourselves in the same predicament if they do?"

The Jumi smiled apologetically. "I'll get the hang of it soon. But it would be wise right now if we picked up the pace. Sticking around isn't a very good idea and we'd better put some distance between us and the army. A few miles wouldn't hurt."

"What for?" Faustis shrugged. "I mean, they're heading towards the tombstone, anyway? They'll probably just forget about snacking on us once they get into the Underworld and find some other poor monsters to eat."

Kestrelle shook her head, skirting around a zombie frozen in the act of swinging its arm. She turned to look at the two warriors. "The zombies stayed away from the tombstone. None of them moved toward it, much less touched it to trigger the entrance spell."

"None of them?"

"They were moving toward us," Elazul informed him. "They ignored the Underworld entrance. It may as well have not been there."

"What are you saying?" Faustis had a feeling he knew already.

Elazul looked at him. "They weren't heading home. And they were all drawn toward us, ignoring other monsters. I saw several "

"And?"

Elazul smiled grimly. "They were after us."

~~~~~~~~~

They reached the Tree the next day and found out that Pearl and Lisa had gone ahead to Geo. A note left on the dinner table informed them to meet them in Lumina. So after taking some much-needed rest, they headed on to Lumina.

It was only two days worth of traveling, so they arrived at the city easily, not running across any of the Dead on the way. Which isn't to say that they had dropped their guard, of course. Faustis was many things: paranoid was one of them.

They went to the inn and found Pearl, Lisa, and Bud's prostrate body waiting for them. Lisa and Pearl were thrilled to have them back and curious to know who Kestrelle was. The stony warrior eventually warmed up to them, but it softened her harsh disposition very little. Faustis wasn't surprised.

After resting for a while from their trip, they gathered around for the evening. 

"Kestrelle," Faustis said presently. "We'd like to hear the information you have. About the fellow who raised the Dead. Who was he?"

Kestrelle regarded him silently, eyes grave. "Very well. It is time for me to uphold my end of the bargain."

"All right, then." Faustis nodded. "To start with, do you know who he was? He was a necromancer, I'm certain, but what was his name?"

Kestrelle closed her eyes for a moment, folding her arms and leaning against the wall. "I know him." She opened her eyes. "His name is Ryath."

"Go on," Pearl smiled encouragingly.

The girl smiled thinly. "I met him twice before. And I regret each meeting." Her smile disappeared, and her eyes seemed distant, as though she was seeing the events unfold again. 

"The first time I ran into Ryath the Necromancer, I was still fully alive and wandering around the area around that dreadful tombstone. I had traveled a long way from my village and I was tired, but I enjoyed the adventure. I was walking through some unnamed area when I ran into him."

"Did you talk to him?" Lisa asked eagerly. "Was he handsome?"

"Lisa!" Faustis groaned. 

Lisa grinned and stuck her tongue out at him.

Kestrelle laughed. "Yes, I did. And yes, he could be considered handsome if you like the pale, arrogant type. I had never seen anyone like him before. He was tall—taller than you, Elazul—and very pale. His hair was colorless and he had strange armor on. I didn't know where he was from, but he seemed to know about me.

"I was instantly on guard with him. I didn't like people knowing things about me when I hardly had a clue who he was. Besides, the arrogant way he spoke irritated me." She shrugged. "I asked him who he was, and he told me that I didn't deserve to know his name. That helped very little to ease my growing annoyance with him." 

Elazul sighed. "I have a vague idea of what happened next."

She smirked. "If your guess is hostility and the eventual bringing out of weapons, you're right."

The Lapis Lazuli Knight shrugged. "Replace 'eventual' with 'instant'."

"You fought the guy?" Faustis exclaimed in disbelief. "But you hardly knew him!"

She waved that aside. "That didn't matter." She looked at him with a serious expression. "He insulted my village. He insulted my pride. He had it coming. I even believe he provoked me deliberately."

"So who won?" Lisa asked.

Kestrelle was quiet for a moment. "I'd like to think that no one won, but he did, in the end."

"Why?"

"We were at it for hours. I suppose he got tired of playing around." The blue-haired warrior smiled bleakly. "He used his powers and trapped me in the Underworld." Her eyes were hard as agates.

Faustis gaped. "…Wow. He's got that much power?"

"Necromancy," Elazul said quietly. "The power over the Dead and Life."

"…What about the second time?" Lisa inquired, looking at Kestrelle.

Kestrelle smiled. "I was already trapped in the Underworld. It was the second year I was lost, and I was giving up all hope of ever leaving. But that isn't to say that I had stopped attempting to escape."

"He was in the Underworld before?" Faustis leaned in intently. "This Ryath fellow? What was he doing there?"

She answered slowly, "I didn't know back then, and I still don't know." She continued, "I was roaming around the levels when he appeared. I was startled, to say the least."

"What happened next?" Lisa sat on the edge of her seat.

Kestrelle's eyes became distant again. "He was looking for me, I think. Of course, I didn't really give him the chance to explain himself, so I can't be sure."

"What do you mean?" Elazul asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously. "Don't tell me…"

She grinned. "Yeah. I attacked him." At their surprised looks, she defended herself. "What do you expect? I was furious at him. He trapped me in that hell! Did you think I'd pat him on the back? Take him aside so I could tell him about life in the Underworld? Have _tea with him??" She laughed. "Of course I attacked. He took away my life."_

Faustis thought it over for a moment. "Well, I suppose you had reason enough."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but I lost anyway. He summoned two large Behemoths to cover him. When he saw it was me, he told them to attack. I couldn't handle them, since my blade only existed in Life, so all I had was some rusty sword I took from a rotten skeleton." She preened a little. "I took one out, though."

"And then?" Pearl asked. "What did he do?"

Kestrelle frowned. "Well, I was cornered." Her face darkened. "He was laughing at me and he said a couple of things I would have annihilated him for had I not been pinned under that stupid monster. Then he left." She scowled. "I think he was in the Underworld looking for me just to make me angry.

"And the third time was just recently. A week or so ago."

"When he was recruiting the Dead for his army?" Faustis guessed. 

"Yes. I heard a commotion in the higher levels—where the recently Dead were."

"That was him, right?" Pearl asked. "Ryath."

Kestrelle nodded. "I was on my way to attempt to escape once more when I came upon a group of souls. They were terrified. One of them noticed me and recognized me. Told me to run away."

"But you didn't, right?" Lisa interjected.

"Of course not," Kestrelle scoffed. "I thought that it could have been my chance to escape at last."

"But it wasn't," Faustis stated.

"Obviously, Elazul grumbled. "Will you let her go on with the story? Night is falling. Do you want to stay here all night or not?"

"Touchy," Faustis muttered.

Kestrelle resumed her story. "I headed in the direction the souls seemed to be fleeing from. It took me some time to get there, but then again, time doesn't really mean anything in the Underworld. Anyway, I got to the center of all the furor and there Ryath stood, right smack in the center and looking as smug as ever." She rolled her eyes, scowling.

"Did he see you?" Pearl asked, eyes wide.

Kestrelle nodded her head. "Yeah. He talked to me, like he expected me to be there. He was very civil—although I don't know whether I returned the courtesy. I was going to attack him—he was alone this time—when suddenly, he summoned the Dead." She closed her eyes. "I recognized some of the Souls inside them. Many were harmless specters." She sighed.

"That's horrible," Pearl murmured.

"I was angry—No." Kestrelle's eyes were dark. "Angry is an understatement of what I felt. I wanted to kill him, but I couldn't—he was surrounded by his Dead, and I was unarmed. But that didn't matter to me. All I saw were the images of the Souls he had destroyed."

"But then he suddenly turned away from me. He was speaking to someone, only I didn't understand what he was saying. Someone else did, though. There was this horrible voice…" She trailed off, closing her eyes. 

An inappropriate expression flitted over her face. Faustis realized that it was fear. Immediately, Faustis was on guard. Kestrelle obviously wasn't a person who scared easily.

Lisa blinked and suddenly leaned forward, intently looking at the warrior. "Kestrelle, can you describe how it sounded? Can you tell me?" Faustis wondered why Lisa was so focused on the voice.

"It was…" Kestrelle swallowed. "It was beautiful at first. My soul…my soul felt like it had come to life when I heard it. Like it had come home. But the words…" She opened her eyes. "It was some ancient language. But it scared me. Not the words—I couldn't understand them, remember? But they made my heart feel like sinking to the very depths of the Underworld, where damned scream in pain for eternity because of their unjust lives."

Lisa nodded slowly, looking sad. "It was evil, wasn't it." It was more of a statement than a question. "Pure evil. At first, so beautiful—lifting all the sadness from your shoulders. Then you'd feel the undertones, the evil…the sadness would fall back onto you, and fear would make you cringe away…"

Faustis blinked. "Lisa, where did you get all this? I think you should stay away from my ale and from Farryn's books. Between the both of them, your bright young mind would rot before you even turn properly senile!"

"You know something, don't you, Lisa?" Elazul studied the girl. "These aren't simply educated guesses or results of a drunken reverie." He glanced at Faustis meaningfully.

Faustis rolled his eyes. "Well, how was I to know?"

"I'm sure you'll figure that out once you yank your head out from the bottom of an ale barrel, Faustis," Elazul told him mildly. "It'll be hard work, but I have that much faith in you."

"I'm offended! Deeply wounded!"

"Then I have done my work well," Elazul said, smirking slightly. He turned to Lisa. "Go on."

Lisa smiled gratefully at the Jumi Knight. "I said all those things because I think that I know this Ryath person. Bud and I have seen him, and we also have heard the voice." She glanced at Kestrelle. "Did the Ryath fellow have white hair and grey eyes? Wore blue—almost black—ribbed armor?"

The blue-haired warrior nodded. "Yes. And I told you his hair was colorless."

"Isn't white a color?" Faustis wondered.

Kestrelle looked pensive. "I guess that this man you know is Ryath as well, Lisa. But how did you come to meet him? And what about the voice?"

"The voice…I heard the voice when Ryath was around and…" Lisa stared at her hands for a moment, then looked up, meeting Faustis' gaze. "And it is Ryath who kidnapped Farryn."

Faustis met her look, all seriousness now. "We will get her back." He shifted his glance to Kestrelle. "Have you any idea where he's headed?"

She smiled. "I got the hint that they're going to Geo." She flexed her fingers. "I made sure to find out. I have some things I would like to say to him."

Lisa's face brightened. "That's good! We're going to Geo to wake Bud, too!"

Faustis nodded, his face set with determination. "All right. To Geo, then."

~~~~~~~~~

She watched them.

Six left the inn of Lumina once the sun had risen and made to travel west. One of them was carried on a litter, yet brought with him immense power. A girl, hardly older than a decade, walked along beside him, also throbbing with magical energy. Two were Children of the Earth Stars, Lifelings who called themselves Jumi. Both with formidable Mana attractions.

And what was this? An escapee from the Underworld?

A frown marred the perfection of Her face. Desdemona had not done her job well. She scrutinized the warrior. She was potent in the Mana flow as well, but not so much as the Jumi. Yet something there was something about her…

The Mana Goddess turned Her attention away and fixed it on the Sprite.

There he was. He was talking rather animatedly to the group and gesturing wildly. She watched. So much power lying untapped within him. But he never relied on it. Always stumbling through battles, possessing the best of luck.

She frowned. No…not just luck. Something watched over him. Something…

"Goddess!" A man strode into the cavernous room and bowed before straightening up to look at Her. He was handsome, to say the least, and his silver hair and gray eyes seemed to glow in the darkness.

"Ryath." She nodded to him. Her eyes slid to the form beside him. "Desdemona," She murmured, eyes hardening slightly.

The Daughter curtsied warily. "Goddess…forgive me. I come to beg Your clemency. In the Mana-fortified base in the Underworld—"

"I know what happened," She snapped. "You were irresponsible. And you failed Me."

"Divinity, I had no idea that two mere mortals could be enough to defeat the Enawerion!" she protested. "My creature has demolished armies of the Undead and slain countless heroes."

The Goddess narrowed Her eyes. "Was your head turned off, Desdemona?" She asked frigidly. "Did it occur to you that perhaps these two who can brave the Underworld weren't 'mere mortals'?"

Desdemona lowered her head humbly, although the Goddess could see the hatred burning in the soulless blood-colored eyes. "Forgive me, Mistress. I wasn't thinking properly."

She stared at the demoness coldly. "I thought the same as well." She then turned to Ryath. "How is the girl?"

Ryath smiled slightly. "She is well, my Lady. Once she gave into Your will—and that of the Crystal Arrow, of course, her disease washed away and I find her pleasant to converse with."

The Goddess nodded thoughtfully. "It is amazing that she has managed to resist My will for so long…" she mused.

The necromancer told Her, "She has great power, my Lady. The Mana emanating from her throbs with unimaginable potency, and more so now, what with the Arrow embedded into the core of her aura."

A thin smile graced Her lips. "She is perfect, then." She raised Her hand. "Present her to Me, Ryath."

The pale man bowed. "As you wish, my Lady." He bowed again and strode out of the room.

The Goddess returned to Desdemona. She stared at the demoness for a moment, then said harshly, "You have failed me, Desdemona, and I do not take lightly to failure. I want you to cease this at once. You will return to direct the Dead. Accompany Ryath to the Ancient City and aid him in adding to our number. Perhaps that would be an easier task for you to handle."

She could see the demoness bristle with anger, but Desdemona bowed her head. "Yes, Divinity."

The Goddess looked at her imperiously. "Do not fail."

Desdemona barely controlled the hatred on her expression. "Not again." And she vanished.

The Goddess turned away and stared back into the column of light. The six travelers were settling for the night. She watched coldly as they sat down around a fire, burning wood that had protected the towering forms of Mana. Angrily, She turned away.

The doors opened and Ryath stepped in. "Your Holiness, I wish to present you with the fruit of your endless labor." He bowed and offered his arm to the girl beside him.

The Goddess then saw her—the Mana Angel.

She was clothed all in white and the light from the outside filtered through her golden hair, making it glow like the sun. She was unadorned with jewels and trinkets, but for a simple gold band around her temples and the small arrow-shaped crystal embedded in her forehead. She was the epitome of simple beauty.

Ryath led her to the Goddess' throne. The Sprite's steps were graceful and delicate, the undeniable walk of a lethal warrior, as she curtsied to the divine woman on the throne.

"My Lady," the Angel murmured softly. "Long have I waited to meet You."

The Goddess rose and studied her. Here was the fruit of Her plans. The fulfillment of millions of years of planning. The end to all hateful Life and the beginning of blissful oblivion.

She was perfect. The flawless warrior. The ideal tool. The Mana Angel. Power came from her in torrents, amplified by the stone in her forehead.

The Goddess regarded her with her myriad-colored eyes, remembering when the Arrow had first touched the struggling Sprite's skin. The girl had let out an horrible scream of unbearable pain. Of unimaginable loss.

It was the other baby, She remembered. The mistake—the result of the Star's meddling. The Angel's earthly twin.

The two children had shared an inscrutably deep bond as siblings, twins and friends. The Goddess had admired their closeness but knew that it was necessary to sever their Bond. The Mana Angel should not be bound by earthly ties.

And when the Crystal Arrow embedded the Sprite's forehead, it reached within and cut all the strings of Bondage. She would remember the boy no more. She would remember nothing.

Yet still the girl struggled against the Stone, even though she was broken and knew not why. She had resisted, erecting a barrier of pure Mana to protect her will, even though her memory was gone.

But all would have to bow to the will of the Mana Goddess.

And so, the Sprite's surprisingly stubborn will was overcome by that of the goddess' and the Crystal Arrow enveloped the girl's entire being.

The Mana Goddess sent a thought into the Angel's mind and saw that the girl's thoughts were completely devoted to Her. But there was something else in the mind that was strange, unknown.

Never mind. It was unimportant.

The Goddess continued to sift through the girl's mind and recovered one fragment of her memory. Her name was Farryn.

"The Wanderer," She murmured. "A name fitting for a mortal, lost in the treacherous breach of Life. But you are the Mana Angel. Long awaited by history to end its miserable existence. No mortal name could suit you."

"Name me as You wish, Milady," the girl once known as Farryn entreated. "Whatever it may be, it will be perfect, for surely You know all."

The Goddess smiled. "You will be Ancelin.

"The Handmaiden."

~~~~~~~~~

Well? I know that there are many things here that are a little more than fuzzy. Like Ryath and Kestrelle, for one thing. Don't worry, they'll work out eventually and things will become as fuzz-less as an egg.

Yuck.

Anyway, things are coming around now, but they still have to gather the party together. BTW, Faustis _still likes Pearl, OK? And Elazul…well. We'll see about that._

I support Heroine + Elazul. Just so you know. Don't want people getting the wrong idea.


	6. The Tome of Magic

~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Five

~~~~~~~~~

Geo was a nice enough place, Faustis concluded, but he decided that he wouldn't want to live there. Geo was far too scholarly for his taste and it was annoying to have the Magic Academy's identical students scampering about underfoot all the time. 

Besides, the only shades of green could be found on the students' robes—Faustis' normally docile Sprite instincts disliked the lack of hibiscus or any other plant life in the spacey avenues of Geo. He'd have taken the homey countryside beauty of Domina any time.

He stood on the balcony of the room they had rented at the local inn, staring at the view the city of Geo made in the early noon. He wondered with a certain amount of desperation where Farryn was, and with more than a marginal amount of anger whether the corpse-raising mage would be found in Geo or not.

He sighed, his thoughts reverting to Farryn once more. Where was she now? Faustis wondered, feeling an aching absence in his heart. This was all wrong. Farryn had always filled that emptiness—how could it have been taken away? Faustis felt the uncharacteristic urge to destroy something in his desperation.

He missed his sister. He longed for her gentle yet often wry and insightful humor, missed her intricate outlooks on life and her comforting presence.

Always, whenever they were off on their separate adventures, he had been able to sense her current emotions to some level. He may not have known where her physical body was, but he always knew that she was there, somewhere in his heart.

And now it was gone. Not a single thread of thought or feeling leaked in through their link. She was lost to him, like some amazing dream—a lingering memory. He clearly remembered her, but it all had the tenuousness of imagination.

But no. He would not forget her. And he would find her.

"Faustis," someone said in a quiet voice.

The Sprite turned around, wondering whether he should be pleased to be interrupted from his reverie. But there was nothing he could do about it, he supposed, short of throwing the Lapis Lazuli Knight out of his room, which he doubted Elazul would particularly enjoy. So instead, Faustis hurriedly plastered a bright face to shield his melancholy from the unfortunately perceptive Jumi.

Elazul frowned slightly when he caught Faustis' attempt to hide his thoughts but decided to say nothing about it, choosing give his announcement anyway. "Pearl and Lisa have gone to the Academy with Bud to speak with the Headmaster. Lisa seems to believe that he can wake Bud up, but she doesn't look too hopeful, which I don't understand."

Faustis laughed. "Mephianse—the Headmaster—had many run-ins with Bud, most of them unpleasant--for him, at least. But I doubt that he'd turn away a former student, no matter how wayward, but then again, that's just my Sprite's inability to think anyone would turn anyone away." He laughed.

Elazul stepped up to the balcony, staring out at Geo. "That could be it," he agreed absently.

Faustis also turned to look back at the city. "Where did Kestrelle go?"

The Jumi replied with some amusement, "She went off to have a look at the city."

Faustis smiled genuinely. "I'm glad she's doing that. Enjoying life, I mean. Maybe she'll loosen up."

"Maybe," Elazul smirked slightly. "I don't advise you to lay any money on it, though."

Faustis shuddered. "You're right, I think."

Elazul glanced at him. "I'm going to go visit the Jumi outpost here in Geo. Esmeralda. She might have some important information, especially since she's positioned in the Academy."

Faustis brightened. "You're right! We should go now!"

Elazul blinked and uttered, "We?" before Faustis dragged him out into the streets.

The Academy of Magic in Geo was the best place to go when one was seeking information. Along with being the prime center for education, the Academy also had a spy network threaded all throughout Fa'Diel, headed by the Headmaster. The information they gathered was always accurate, which was surprising, because they were garnered by the flighty students of Geo. Every student one met in Fa'Diel was actually an agent for the intelligence network.

Which was the logical reason for the Jumi to post one of their own people inside. Back then, they had disapproved of Esmeralda's desire to learn more about magic, but after the near extinction of their race, decided that she was strategically placed to garner the information picked up by the students, so they allowed her to stay.

The two warriors moved through the throng of newly dismissed students, meeting the Green Jumi loitering in the corridors with a book in each hand.

"Elazul!" Esmeralda cried, clapping her hands happily. "And Faustis! What are you two doing here? And where's Pearl?"

"Pearl is here as well," Elazul answered, unperturbed by the girl's gaiety. "She's talking to Mephianse at the moment."

"Whatever for?"

Faustis and Elazul exchanged a long look, debating whether to enlighten the girl or not. Elazul sighed. "You might as well tell her what happened. She could go report this to Etansel—maybe they'd have a few leads."

Faustis sighed. "You may be right."

Esmeralda tapped her foot impatiently. "Well? What are you two idiots talking about?"

Faustis grinned. "I don't know...It's a long story." He saw the girl's aggravation rising.

If there was anything Esmeralda loved the most, it was information, which was why she made the perfect scholar and the worst warrior. When the Jumi race assigned her to Geo with the assignment of gathering information, she had been ecstatic. Denying her information she wanted often came out with deadly results.

"I have time," she growled. "Tell me now." Her green eyes burned with a dangerous light.

"But as a student, your time surely must be—"

"NOW, YOU DUMB SPRITE!!" Esmeralda roared, green glimmers beginning to lance through her skin. The Mana rising off her essence was glowing in warning.

So, in danger of their lives, Faustis and Elazul told the nearly-raging Jumi what they had gone through. As soon as they finished, Esmeralda exploded, "Why didn't you take me with you?? I could have made an investigative report on the Mana outpour of the Underworld! Do you know how many units I could have gotten for that?"

Faustis didn't even bother to answer that one. "So do you have any information for us?" He deliberately dropped the word information, knowing that it was her key weakness.

She grinned cheekily at him, her rage nowhere in sight. "Of course."

There was silence.

Impatient, Elazul prompted, "Well?"

"What sort of information do you need?" she asked. Upon observing their exasperated looks, she protested, "What? Of course I'd have information! You can't expect to hole up in the Learning Capital without learning a thing or two and I'm a scholar. I eat information for breakfast. I digest intelligence during lunch. I excrete—"

"That's enough, I think," Elazul interrupted hastily. "Do you have anything that would give us an insight about the sudden uprising of the Dead? Any disturbance on the Mana Flow?"

Esmeralda pursed her lips, staring at the ceiling in deep thought. "Well…there are some things buzzing around about that recently on the campus..."

There was silence among them again but for the chattering voices of the students filing down the corridor.

"Esmeralda," Elazul made out through tightly gritted teeth.

The Jumi scholar let out a silvery peal of laughter and patted his cheek warmly. "I just wanted to do that, Elazul. It's fun to watch you lose your temper."

Elazul glared at her. "If you weren't older than me…"

"But I am, aren't I?" Esmeralda smiled at him. "Nothing you can do about that. Now you two follow me. I think we have some new reports in the library."

The three set off through the academy walkways, arriving at the library, which, Faustis noticed with some distaste, was distinctly cramped compared to the wide avenues of Geo. Scholars always seemed to feel the need to keep things as cluttered as possible.

Esmeralda went to a table piled with scrolls and sifted through the crackly parchment, scanning the headings with practiced speed. She eventually produced several scrolls from the pile and dumped them on another table that was only slightly less disorderly.

"Here," she said triumphantly, choosing one from the pile. "This one might help you if you run into the Dead later on. It's a definitive study about the Dead. Very general, covers all topics." She handed it to Faustis and picked up another scroll. "This one is a report about the recent tides of the Mana Flow throughout Fa'Diel. The current nowadays is very peculiar, leaning toward the Shade property more often than not, probably because of the recent activity of the Dead." She frowned. "It's not very promising—something's going on."

"We guessed that," Elazul said dryly.

Esmeralda shrugged and continued to pile scrolls in Faustis' arms, describing each one's headline and adding her own opinion every now and that. Faustis gaped at the growing heap of parchment with dismay.

Esmeralda didn't notice. "…And this one concerns the theories on the spiritual genesis of Mana—very effective, you see, as it maintains a vital influx—"

"Hold it," Faustis said with a hint of panic in his voice. "Esmeralda, I don't make any pretense of being a scholar and I don't know that Elazul does, either. I don't understand half of what you're saying."

Elazul arched his eyebrow. "I pick up a book every now and then," he objected. "Which is probably more than I can say for you. Besides, Esmeralda, I meant news information. Current events, not records. Has anything out of the ordinary happened? Something that we should know?"

Esmeralda scrunched up her nose, looking thoughtful. "Now that I think about it, yes. Last week, or maybe the week before that, there was a sudden and massive incursion of Mana south of Gato detected by our mages. Odd, since the Mana didn't display any of the regular properties." Her eyes darkened. "It's got most of the sages unsettled. Something divine…"

"But there isn't anything south of Gato!" Faustis protested loudly, earning a glare from the librarian. More quietly, he continued, "Nothing but rocks and dirt and—"

Elazul interrupted suddenly, "Faustis, do you remember the first time we met?"

"I like you, too, Elazul," Faustis replied cheekily, knowing it would irritate the irascible Jumi. "We're good friends, but this isn't exactly the time to reminisce about the good old days."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Elazul snapped peevishly. "I'm talking about what happened after we left Domina. With Rachel."

Faustis frowned, trying to remember. After he got separated from his sister… "You mean when she gave us that artifact after you threatened her to tell you where Pearl was?"

"Elazul," Esmeralda clucked her tongue disapprovingly. "You threatened a little girl?"

"Damn right he did," Faustis said gleefully, seeing the growing irritation in Elazul's eyes. "Scared her right out of her fairy wings."

"Did not!" a voice interrupted indignantly. "And I was not little!"

The three turned around and saw a student glaring at them, hands on hips in a surprisingly feminine gesture, seeing as the student was male.

"Little children should be seen, not heard," Esmeralda reprimanded.

"And eavesdropping isn't very attractive," Elazul remarked darkly.

Faustis, however, grinned. "Hello, Rachel." Laughing silently at the stunned and disbelieving looks on his companions' faces, he went on, "Elazul, Esmeralda, meet the new and improved Rachel."

"What?" Both of his Jumi friends took a double take.

The student scowled at them. "Yes?" she said belligerently. Or he, Faustis supposed. My, it was all confusing.

Faustis observed Rachel's mannerism, noting that Rachel had definitely changed in more ways than the physical. Marcus and Jennifer would have an apoplexy to see their dear little angel turn into a sourpuss.

"You're not Rachel!" Elazul vehemently declared in a whisper. "For one thing, Rachel is a girl!"

The student whose mind was Rachel's own looked slightly pained. "Well, yes, that was one of the drawbacks to this body switch," she admitted. "I couldn't find any girl who'd want to trade bodies with me. The student whose body I now possess was…queer, but he was the only available choice." She grimaced.

Faustis laughed, but seeing the bewildered looks on the others' faces, said tiredly, "Another long story. Not particularly pretty."

Esmeralda blinked. "I don't think I'm really curious about it," she hastily put in. "So you don't have to tell me now. Maybe next week. Or next year." She paused. "Or never."

"Same," Elazul muttered, blinking wildly as well.

Faustis grinned. "Ah, you Jumi people are too fastidious. Too uppity to see the other side."

"No," Elazul replied. "We see the other side just as well as you do. We're just not so blatant about it."

Faustis shrugged. "Your loss." He turned to Rachel then. "Stay for a while," he inveigled. "I've been meaning to ask you a few things."

"All right," Rachel said grudgingly. "After all, I have you to thank for saving my sanity. I swear, if I had to last another day being babied and I really would lose my wits. But make it fast. Professor Kathinja is going to give us a lecture about the Faerie Wars."

"Oh, that?" Esmeralda said flippantly. "I could tell you all about it. After all, I was there myself."

Rachel gave her a wild-eyed look.

"Didn't you know?" Faustis grinned. "I suppose these learning institutions don't give any thought to learning things through observation much. A pity."

"Faustis," Elazul said edgily. "Stop badgering the girl and hurry up."

"You ruin all my fun," the Sprite sighed. "All right, since old Mr. Uppity over there wants us to hurry up, I will."

"Ask away." Rachel shrugged.

Silence.

"Well?" Rachel and Elazul almost snapped.

Giving Esmeralda a quick wink, he drawled, "I can see why you do this so much. It's delightfully aggravating, isn't it?"

Esmeralda grinned. "It gives me something to do in my spare time."

Faustis laughed and turned to Rachel. "Do you remember when you gave us the Jade Egg?"

She nodded, eyes wary. "And?"

"How did you know it would help us? And where did you find it in the first place?"

"Here and there," she answered evasively.

"Spill it, Rachel," Faustis commanded. "Or I'll send Marcus to summer in Geo."

The student's eyes widened in alarm. "Don't!" Rachel begged. "He'll force me to either change back or wear girl clothes! And I'm a boy now!"

"Who's this Marcus?" Esmeralda asked curiously.

"Her father," Faustis said with an extra dramatic flourish.

"Her father?" she repeated in incomprehension.

"I prefer to think of him as my sire," Rachel said snippily. She paused. "How is the old beetle doing, by the way? Has he noticed anything yet?"

"He's as unmindful as ever, Rachel," Faustis responded. "And stop trying to change the subject. Answer my question now. Where and when did you find that egg?" 

"When?" Rachel repeated impertinently. "You didn't ask me 'when' a while ago."

He gave her a look. "And I meant it about the vacation. Marcus could stay at the inn—or rent a room in the dormitories."

Rachel paled slightly. "I found the egg by the brook. Several years ago."

"Where is this brook?"

"Gato Grottoes."

"There are no brooks in the Grottoes. Just the waterfall."

"Somewhere near there, then."

"Do I have to drag every single detail out from you?" Faustis demanded exasperatedly.

"All right, all right, fine," Rachel grumbled. "Southeast of Gato, or south of Kilma, me and my overbearing parents were vacationing in the house of my aunt in the dustlands."

"Aunt…?" Faustis prompted, receiving three dirty looks from the others. "I'm kidding," he muttered.

"Go on, Rachel." Elazul nodded.

"All right. I finally managed to escape my father's surveillance, since I wanted to look around the dustlands. I was roaming around the foothills when there was this enormous explosion somewhere. Its force pulled back the trees and knocked me to the ground." She made a face. "I was such a weed back then, but it's just as well, since it started raining objects."

"Objects?" Elazul inquired, looking slightly baffled.

She nodded. "Artifacts, actually."

"Really?" Faustis exclaimed.

Rachel bobbed her head slightly. "I was hidden under a rocky ledge when something burning suddenly hit the ground in front of me. It was the Jade Egg.

"I looked up and saw all the other objects in the sky, but they weren't falling like this one. They seemed to be moving on their own, heading out in different directions."

Elazul asked her urgently, "Did any other artifacts fall in the general vicinity of your hiding place?"

The student's face frowned. "I think so, but I didn't see where it landed. I wasn't able to go look for it, anyway, since my parents were looking for me. Didn't let me out of their sight for a week."

"Damn," the Jumi Knight swore.

"Why are you all so interested in these things, anyway?" the misplaced girl asked them.

Faustis slowly answered, "Do you know what these artifacts do? What they stand for, I mean."

Rachel shook her head, looking disgusted that she didn't know.

"Well," Faustis paused, scratching his stubble-free chin absently. "I'm no expert on what really happens with the process and all—that's Farryn's expertise, and as I said, I'm no scholar. I'm just guessing."

"So spit it out, Faustis," Elazul pressed. "When it turns out that you're wrong, the most you'll get is a round of everyone's pointing and laughing, but that's about it." He paused. "Of course, we'd probably do it for quite some time."

"Funny," Faustis replied dryly. "Very funny. For your information, I'm inclined to believe that my theory about it all is right." He grinned. "After all, Farryn helped me think it up."

"So what is it?" Esmeralda asked with the tiniest hint of irritation in her voice.

Faustis shrugged. "An artifact, for Farryn and me, is kind of a focus for a certain place. A key. It's like a beacon, since we can't see it."

Esmeralda's eye twitched. "Get eloquent, Faustis. You're not making any sense."

The Sprite paused momentarily, thinking it over carefully. "All right. Let's take the Egg for an example. I'm willing to bet that Elazul had already heard of the Mekiv Caverns—been there, even."

Elazul nodded. "Pearl and I went there some time before I met you."

Faustis was glad to hear it confirmed. "But I never knew it was there. I mean, before we had our first artifact, Farryn and I didn't even realize that there was anything outside our Tree other than dirt and rocks. Sure, we had our books, but we didn't believe them. We knew all about Mekiv and Domina and even Lucemia, but we thought they were just stories."

"So what you're saying," Esmeralda said slowly. "Is that all an artifact does is reveal places to people who can't see them?"

Faustis shook his head. "Not just that, I think. Tell me, Elazul. What were the Mekiv Caverns like before we triggered the artifact?"

The Knight thought about it. "To tell you the truth, they weren't much. Just a monster-infested honeycomb of rock."

"And after the artifact?"

Elazul was silent for a few moments. "It was as if…" he hesitated, then plunged on. "It was as if there was a sudden explosion of Mana. Life."

"Exactly," Faustis grinned. "Imagination is Mana as well, and using ours colored the place a bit."

Rachel's brow furrowed. "So what an artifact does is to sort of renew the Mana flow that runs through a certain area if it has a designated artifact with Mana-induced imagination?"

"That's my guess," Faustis shrugged. "Of course, your guess is as good as mine."

"No," the student sniffed.  "If I had one, it would be better."

"Funny."

Suddenly, a loud detonation rocked the air. It wasn't an actual explosion coming from a bomb. It was an explosion they only heard in their minds, an explosion of Mana.

"What was that?" Rachel squeaked, clinging to her hat.

Faustis concentrated his focus on the focal point of the disturbance and came up with a very familiar echo. 

"Wouldn't you know?" he grinned, laughing. "Bud has finally decided to join us!"

~~~~~~~~~

This chapter was fun to write, but not much action going on. Is it shorter compared to the others? Because it feels like it. But more action will occur later on.

And isn't it fun to have Elazul ticked off? :D


	7. The Medallion

~~~~~~~~~

Chapter Seven

~~~~~~~~~

The next day, the party, which had originally consisted of two mages, two Jumi, an Adventurer and a Sprite, left Geo, heading for the Gato Grottoes. Much to Kestrelle's dismay, Niccolo had insisted on coming along.

"The fool will be nothing but a burden!" she raged, throwing venomous glances at the pleased-looking merchant. "He only seeks to feather his own nest!"

It was the second day since they had left Geo, traveling east. Pearl and Lisa had been fussing over Bud, who—predictably—lavished on it for the first few hours—encouraged it, even, with a show of weakness, but quickly tired of it once they got around to refusing to allow him to join the few battles they ran into, which Faustis, Elazul and Kestrelle easily took care of. Judging by the secret looks Faustis caught Pearl and Lisa tossing at each other throughout the whole of it, they knew that Bud had merely been hoarding the attention.

Meanwhile, Kestrelle and Niccolo had perpetually been on the verge of strangling each other ever since Niccolo announced that he was joining them. Which was quite apparent, considering the current situation (which had recurred many times with little variation).

"Don't we all?" Elazul said blandly, wearily running through the now-familiar cycle of Kestrelle and Niccolo's previous arguments.

Kestrelle gave him an irritated look and went on, "He's a useless thief and will probably get in our way all the time! We shall have to pamper him or to defend him from Rabites—"

"Excuse me, Madam," Niccolo interrupted indignantly. "This is where I'm afraid I'd have to interrupt. I am all for your promise of a pleasant and pampered journey for me, but I must inform you that I am perfectly able to defend myself against small furry animals—"

"What about the bigger ones?" Kestrelle challenged him. "And it was _not_ any sort of promise. Ugh."

Niccolo looked offended. "Obviously. How else could an honest merchant such as myself get his wares hawked anywhere past all the wild lands? I have to know a _few _measures of self-defense and, as I do in nearly everything, have come to excel in it."

Faustis winced painfully. The rabbit really should learn to think a little. At least a little.

"Honest?" Kestrelle snorted skeptically. "You'd probably explode if you said anything remotely truthful. Besides," she added, arching her eyebrow. "You probably weasel your way out of every fight you stir up."

"I've told the truth a dozen times!" Niccolo protested in a strained voice.

"And _only_ a dozen times, I'd bet," Kestrelle remarked.

Niccolo paused, his ears twitching in tandem with his nose as he thought about it. His eyes then widened suddenly and he took a step back, gaping at Kestrelle. "Faustis!" he cried. "The devil walks with you! Right there!" he pointed frantically at Kestrelle.

Faustis rolled his eyes. "Knock it off, Niccolo," he said, grinning. "I've met him already and he looks and acts nothing like Kestrelle. Slightly less...finicky."

"FINICKY?? Excuse me?" Kestrelle screeched as Niccolo said stubbornly, "She _is_ the devil."

As they went on bickering, Faustis stared at the travel-worn map he had been studying. It made no sense whatsoever. What did those little squiggles mean? "Elazul, what's the fastest way to Gato?"

Elazul paused briefly then replied, "We go through the Jungle. Then through Mindas Ruins, the White Forest, and whatever's between them, then head east up the mountains: Gato."

Faustis blinked for a moment—did the man have the map imprinted in his head?—then nodded, trusting that Elazul actually knew what he was talking about. "All right then. That's our course."

"What'll we find there in Gato, anyway?" Lisa asked expectantly.

"Well..." Faustis shrugged. "I have no idea."

"Faustis..." she groaned exasperatedly.

"Honestly. I have no idea." He smiled sunnily. "We investigate. We have information—there may be another artifact somewhere near the Grottoes, and the nuns are the experts of defense against the Dead—"

Kestrelle protested, "But we were doing just fine—"

"Sorry, Kestrelle," Faustis interrupted back cheerfully, "but hacking at them until they fall apart takes too much time and even then, their disembodied body parts still have the tendency of jumping and clinging, which could be rather distracting, and it's really gross." He made a face. "There might be a way to get rid of them completely and there's a chance that the nuns have it."

Pearl spoke up hesitantly. "What about Farryn? Will we find her there?"

Faustis smiled briefly. "I would never stop looking for her." He placed the map back into his pocket and started to walk down the road.

"Oh." Pearl's face darkened with pain before she turned away and followed, hastily busying her hands.

Elazul sighed, having noticed her momentary display of the sadness she felt. He might have been able to feel and know what she felt, but there was no way he could help her with any of it. 

Aside from taking Faustis aside and beating some sense into him. But he wouldn't do that. Other than the fact that Pearl probably wouldn't approve, Elazul had grown moderately fond of the Sprite's company. The goofball sometimes even had a calming effect on him. Nowadays, after getting used to the Sprite's eccentricities, Elazul hardly ever needed to smite.

A pity. Smiting was bloody fun.

Unaccustomed to dealing with emotion, he had no idea how to help her with Faustis—what's more, he couldn't possibly understand any of it, since he had, after all, never been in love.

_'Never?_' a soft voice tugged at him in his mind, gently reaching for a memory so ancient he did not realize it existed. But quickly, he pulled it back, remembering of it yet afraid to see it.

Blinking furiously, he looked back and saw something galloping toward them and kicking up a cloud of dust in the distance. His ears caught the faint and incomprehensible words the something seemed to be yammering. Beyond the nattering creature, he saw wave after wave of something he wasn't certain he was pleased to see.

"Faustis?" he called out to the front of the group. "I see something. Over there. Something...loud is heading toward us and leading something unpleasant in its wake." He then slapped himself on the forehead. Far too many _something_'s.

The Sprite spun around and peered at the cloud of dust. "It's...Gilbert. And a whole team of...Dead?" He blinked in dread, starting back with stunned surprise. "Dear Mana! It's Gilbert! Run!"

"What about the Dead?" Bud asked Faustis, his eyes trained angrily on the darkness trailing after the panicked poet. His hands, Elazul noticed, had begun to burn with Mana.

"Forget the Dead!" Faustis exclaimed. "They're dead! Gilbert's heading toward us!!"

Giving Faustis a weary look, Elazul drew his sword, noticing that the rest of the party was readying their weapons as well. He sized up the enemy—twenty-three simple Dead, nothing too difficult to handle, what with the seven of them armed and ready.

Well, six, actually. Faustis was busy cringing behind Niccolo.

"What is wrong?" Kestrelle asked him waspishly.

"Gilbert's coming toward us," Faustis said almost fearfully. 

She squinted at the speeding centaur. "He doesn't look that terrifying. He looks more like a pansy than a warrior. Are you really that much of a wuss?"

Faustis sulked. "You'll regret saying that when he starts talking to you." He shuddered and muttered something which vaguely sounded like: "I'm NOT a cross-dresser."

The centaur suddenly saw them and, with obvious relief, recognized Faustis. He zoomed towards them, with the Dead charging after him, of course, and he yelled, "Be brave and be careful, mighty and valiant Hero! May Lady Luck hold you in her gentle bosom, dearest and most intrepid savior of all!!"

Faustis groaned, quickly plugging his ears.

And then the Dead were upon them.

"Draw your sword, Sprite, NOW!" Kestrelle roared and, wielding her own. She let loose an ululating war cry and plunged into the fray, her sword flashing in the light of the setting sun.

Not to be outdone, Niccolo clashed his gauntlets together and muttered, "Perfectly capable. Lunatic." Then he followed, his blows moving faster than Elazul had ever seen. Niccolo was obviously showing off.

Easily blocking a spear blow from a dead arm with the flat of his saber, Elazul ducked underneath the Dead's guard and slashed upwards. Behind him, he could feel Pearl's Mana emanating brilliantly. Spinning around to meet the attack of another Dead, he realized that he need not worry for his fellow Jumi, for surprisingly, her way of defeating the Dead was the most effective, save perhaps Lisa's fire and Bud's thunder. With a set face and a pair of hands glowing with blinding white Mana, her glow burned through the undead flesh of the Dead and completely destroyed them.

And Faustis had momentarily gotten over his terror of the absent Gilbert and was tripping along in battle, barely managing to stay on his feet, as usual.

With a bit of disappointment, Elazul turned back to his battle, his blows slightly less heartened. He had been hoping to see the other side of Faustis in this battle—the graceful and lethal side of him, instead of this unbelievably lucky yet abhorrently clumsy one.

Oh well.

Pretty soon, they had made short work of the living Dead. Gilbert cheerfully cantered back to the slightly worn-out group from the cluster of rocks he had been hiding behind during the battle.

"A brilliant and unforgettable battle, my friends! Stupendous work!" he crowed jubilantly, as though he had been central to the team's victory. "Never had I a doubt that we on the side of good would prevail against those against our cause! You hide behind your unworldly facades, yet none know the workings of good and evil so much as you! I salute you, and bow with the rest of the world, for you are the paramount defenders of peace and justice, undefeatable and always humbly clad!"

Kestrelle recoiled back, swearing slightly. Faustis eyed the flaxed-haired centaur with saucer-sized eyes, thus the apprehensive look within them openly visible. Elazul sighed.

"Great and almighty worker of good deeds in our holy land!" Gilbert praised Faustis. "I see that you haven't chosen to don costume of the gentler species—a sad thing, it seemeth me, for you truly are a vision of beauty when you decide thus! Nothing compares with your gentle radiance when you do thus."

Kestrelle blinked, as Niccolo snickered behind his hand. Bud was outright laughing, although his sister looked exasperated. Pearl was hiding a smile, and Elazul himself felt the corners of his lips tilt up slightly.

Faustis, on the other hand, was not amused. Quickly shoving aside his fear, leaving ample room for embarrassment and humiliation, he said shortly, "All right, Gilbert. Was there a reason why you were hunted down by a murderous army of Dead or was it just your magnetism for attracting the wrong kind of company?"

Gilbert dramatically spread his hands. "I swear on the origin of true and everlasting love, on the heart of wisdom and truth! There is nothing that I have done to provoke such inarticulate fury! I had been traveling on the light feathered wings of love back to my sweet and heartbreaking siren of passion, my Monique." His eyes began to glaze over, growing starry and distant. "She is the lamplight of my dark and cold nights, the breath of life which keeps me anchored firmly to love, the missing piece of my soul, the sight which I—"

"Get on with it, Gilbert," Faustis sighed wearily. "You absolutely adore Monique. And?"

"Well, if you're going to be _that_ way about it," Gilbert huffed.

"I am."

"All right, all right." Gilbert paused. "Um...where was I?"

Bud piped up, "The missing piece of my soul, sight which I—?"

Lisa whacked her brother, saying, "Not _there_, stupid."

Faustis sighed. "You were going back to Monique," he prodded.

"Ah yes," Gilbert actually swooned, his eyes briefly becoming horrifyingly empty. He composed himself once more and continued, "I was passing through the legendary city of magic and science and walked past its farewell gates, when suddenly, unjustly, unfairly, and surprisingly, I was set upon by these decaying examples of decrepit malevolence!" he exclaimed, pointing vividly to the steaming bodies strewn across the ground. "How dare they attack a man of the word? The proclaimer of love and beauty?"

"Where did you find them?" Elazul asked intently.

"A ways off that golden city of beauty." Gilbert sighed. "Alas, I am a fool, as well as a lover. Warned as I was not to set foot outside the insurmountable walls of the ancient settlement, I blinded myself to the caution given by the caring and left."

"What do you mean?" Kestrelle asked, narrowing her eyes.

"During my sojourn in the marvel that is Geo, I spent a portion of my time in a happy place of wine and bread and warmth, as well as bedding and comfortable wakings."

Kestrelle glanced at Faustis, mouthing incredulously, '_What is he talking about?'_

'_A tavern, I think_,' he mouthed back.

Gilbert went on, "...yet I was struck to the heart to inform the lovely innkeeper that I was but passing through their hometown and only within their walls for a goblet of their fine drink. Her eyes were luminous with worry—"

'_She was drunk,_' Faustis grinned at Kestrelle.

"And with a voice as quiet as night and full of fear as its sky is full of bright twinkling lights, she whispered to me to stay within the city, for graves lay open and their occupants wandered in search of living companionship." Gilbert was getting warmed up, Faustis saw. "—and as fearless a poet as I am, I was hesitant and faltering in my determination for one brief moment as I took in the worth of her words, but my love for my siren of light shone through and I left, living not on earthly hands but on the glowing radiance of love and love alone."

Lisa snapped her fingers. "That's it!" she exclaimed.

"Hmm?" Faustis looked at her, shuddering at the Gilbert's eyes—they had been filled with zeal and little else.

Lisa's eyes took on a similar fervor, although they glowed with a lot more intelligence than Gilbert's. "Kestrelle was right—Ryath _did_ pass through Geo. He just got there a lot earlier than we did. I totally get it now!" Her great smile caused her eyelashes to appear like dark crescents on her cheeks.

"Well, we don't," Bud grumbled. "Care to share?"

"Isn't there an extensive graveyard below the city?" Lisa asked intently. "The one and only cemetery in Geo, the ancient catacombs? That's what Ryath was doing. Resurrecting the dead and recruiting the late warriors of Geo to add to his own collection."

Pearl said thoughtfully, "It would be a stable explanation why the Mana in the city feels different. The Mana of necromancy comes from the Dead's living and the man's magic."

Elazul nodded, his eyes darkening. "And now the forces we must eventually face have multiplied." He sighed, sheathing his clean saber. "We most move quickly—get down to the roots of all this mayhem. It is no longer safe out here."

He paused. "Or anywhere else, for that matter. Not for long."

Faustis sighed. "You're the very personification of optimism, you know that?"

~~~~~~~~~

The Jungle was a beautiful new world with each morning one woke up in it. Dew had misted over every place it could find a handhold in, causing the sun pouring through the bright leaves to scatter across the glittering surfaces and reflect across itself in a beautiful array of color and light. The light, however, was not the only thing of bright and unbelievable shade and beauty. 

Yes, the Jungle was one of the most beautiful places on Fa' Diel.

Something suddenly bit his neck and Bud slapped it irritably, rubbing his now-puffy skin.

There was one drawback to this whole wonder of nature, he decided, as they followed Faustis through the leafy underbrush. One major drawback. Or rather, many little annoying pesky drawbacks. With stingers. And tastes for mage skin.

Bud scowled as he trudged through the mossy and ferny ground, barely missing tripping on a root which he could have sworn wasn't there a moment ago. Instead, he got slapped in the face by a hanging vine.

"Where _exactly_ are we going?" he demanded to his sister, who shrugged.

Lisa, on the other hand, was perfectly content with her surroundings, since she had created an anti-pest shield around herself with Mana. Bud looked at it enviously, vigorously rubbing the small welts across his skin. Maybe he should have considered studying defense spells a bit harder.

Looking at the others, he saw that Faustis seemed to be ignoring all the insects—perhaps they weren't interested in him either, since he was a Sprite. Who knew? Elazul and Pearl also seemed unaffected by the nasty little pests, along with the Adventurer, Kestrelle.

Bud wasn't alone in being slowly driven insane, though. Niccolo was scratching himself over and over again, muttering swear words Bud found entertaining to listen to. Gilbert, who had insisted on joining them, was whining again and again in his usual way, and complaining in sonorous poetry with every step his four legs took.

If it wasn't the insects, it was the humidity, or the excessive green-ness of the plants around him.

Personally, Bud was inclined to believe that Gilbert complained all the time just to listen to his voice. Wasn't a jungle much prettier if it was extremely green?

They trudged through the leaves, following Faustis and hoping that the often hapless Sprite actually knew where he was going instead of marching around with a knowing expression plastered on his face for show. In point of fact, Bud knew that Faustis was never able to really lead anything from one place to another without blundering down a meandering side road bursting with monsters or two, or taking a 'shortcut' which would really lead out half a mile or so from the intended destination.

And so, thinking these thoughts as he tramped along the soft and far too fertile earth of the Jungle and grumbling curses at the Mana goddess for creating mosquitoes, Bud was completely bowled over with surprise when he found himself and his friends standing on the dais before one of the Great Wisdoms, Rosiotti.

So Faustis _did_ know the way, after all. Everyone who had the misfortune of journeying with him on previous occasions breathed audible sighs of profound relief not to have stumbled on a nest of volatile Sky Dragons—

You see, traveling with this Faustis, you almost always got the breathtaking chance to run head on into a den of angry monsters.

Faustis heard their collective sigh and, guessing correctly the cause behind it, whirled around and glared at them.

Bud suddenly found himself examining a large bump on his forearm, whistling tunelessly to the accompaniment of several other suddenly preoccupied whistles.

Faustis muttered a curse under his breath and moved to kneel briefly then stand before one of the six remaining Wisdoms. "Hello, Rosiotti," he greeted the figure on the platform.

Rosiotti nodded at him. "Greetings, Sprite. What brings you to my jungle?" he rumbled.

Faustis smiled apologetically. "To tell you the truth, Rosiotti, I don't quite think that you'll be too thrilled with my visit. Many things outside the Jungle are afoot and I do not come with very happy information."

Rosiotti raised himself slightly and nodded pensively. Bud saw that the great Wisdom was indeed past his prime, for his fur had begun to turn snowy and grey. "I have sensed as much," Rosiotti said, "yet the cause, I know not. Something strange is carried by the whispers of the wind into my jungle, and there is nothing I can make of it. My lack of knowledge troubles me."

"It's not something one would easily suspect, my Lord," Faustis replied. "Unless, of course, one was addled by stale wine and enthralled by old legends..." He quickly checked himself and decided to just say it. The Wisdom's formal speech was catching. He shrugged. "The Dead are marching."

Rosiotti sat up fully, his graying hair suddenly taut. "What?"

The Sprite nodded. "They seem intent on forming great numbers of their kind. My...friend," he nodded to Gilbert, "tells me that they have come from the underground graveyards of Geo, leaving no grave occupied, and I have seen them being drawn out from the Underworld by a single and powerful necromancer."

"An army..." Rosiotti mused. He looked past Faustis. "You travel with diverse companions, Sprite, just to carry a message. Why?"

Faustis smiled briefly. "The purpose of my traveling is not mainly to spread the warning across the land. We journey to find Farryn, to bring her back." His face, though he did not know it, was grave and drawn with pain and fatigue. "We mean to bring her back," he murmured. "For the Dead have captured her."

The Wisdom's face was solemn. "I wish you all the luck, for whatever my blessing is worth. The Dead are formidable, and you need everything possible." He caught Bud's eye. "Ah! Well if it isn't the young mage! Greetings, young man. It is unfortunate that we meet in such troubled times, but how do you fare?"

Bud grinned. "Manageable, sir. Your words to me have helped me understand a little more how things go. Thank you."

"I rather expected that they would. Hum. Imagine that."

They stayed no longer than a few hours at his court, making sure that he would keep guard and his eyes open before bidding his court farewell. Faustis also commissioned one of the penguins who frequently dallied at the court to bring word to the S.S. Buccaneer. All of Fa' Diel must be aware of the threat.

The companions left the Jungle clearing and made their way back to battle their way through the jungle, blindly following Faustis and hoping that his luck with direction still held.

Two hours and a quarter minute later, Faustis turned to all of them, looking rather embarrassed.

"Let me guess," Elazul said dryly. "We're lost again, aren't we?"

Faustis looked puzzled. "The exit should be over there," he pointed, "but we've already gone that way, and we keep ending up back there." He gestured back, looking frustrated. "I don't get it. The exit should be _right _there."

"Well," the Jumi remarked. "It isn't."

"No kidding," Niccolo put in.

"Do not be too harsh on the Sprite," a voice suddenly rebuked them. "He carries his sense of direction with him, but it does not matter here."

A chaos of sounds later, they all had drawn their weapons and Mana and were looking around warily.

"Come out," Faustis called out, looking as though he would prefer it much more if whatever was out there stayed out there, although he did seem relieved that he hadn't been misleading his friends through the Jungle.

"Oh yes," the voice laughed. "I forgot—you can't see me, even though the Sprite has the Eye on him." There was a faint ripple in the air, and then a Faerie as tall as either of the party's mages appeared, landing on the floor with her bare feet. "Better?"

"Much," Faustis replied, looking thankful that she was nothing big, fanged or scaly.

Bud stared. He had never seen a Faerie before—only pictures in his textbooks. This one had dark hazel eyes and hair, apparently a she. Her clothes were woven from colorful plant fibers and her wings rose and fell delicately from her shoulder blades. She was also very pretty.

"A Faerie," Bud murmured, eyes wide.

The Faerie smiled at him and turned back to Faustis. "It's been a long time, huh?"

"I don't recognize you," Faustis confessed.

She shrugged. "We higher Fey are seen only when we choose to." She paused, looking at everyone. "Why do you follow the Sprite? His heart is good, yes, pure even, but I have known him to be a clumsy and rather inept leader. Highly entertaining, though."

As Faustis arranged his face in an expression of deep indignation, Elazul replied, "Out of morbid curiosity, if nothing else."

She sighed. "Ah well. All of you seem to be delights to converse with, but unfortunately, that cannot be."

Warily, Faustis asked, "Why not?"

The Faerie smiled, looking at Bud again. "You may not be permitted to leave this jungle alive. Sorry."

"What?" Gilbert squeaked, perhaps the first short unembellished sentence in his life. "I demand to know why!"

"It's simple," the Faerie closed her eyes, shrugging. "No one enters the Glade of the Fey and lives. That," she opened her eyes and looked at them, "is the law."

~~~~~~~~~


End file.
